Five
by Carth
Summary: A Season 5. The chronicles of the Lyoko Warriors as they face a new enemy, Project Carthage, try to resurrect Franz Hopper, and delve further into the mystery of the supercomputer than ever before. Current episode- #96 "Paradise Lost"
1. Paradise Lost, Part 1

You know what I hear right now? The sound of pigs flying, because I'm actually writing this fanfic! It's been in the planning stages for over two years, even before Code: Lyoko itself ended, and probably still isn't perfect. But, I likely would have exploded if I never wrote it, or at least began to write it, because the concept itself is looooooong. Anyway, it's a fairly straightforward continuation of the CL series, picking up where Echoes left off. Overall I tried to keep canon, but I did take a few artistic liberties, the tone's a bit darker, and some things *might* not have made it onto a TV-Y7 program, even one like CL where censorship is...scant. But I'll try my best to keep it believable!

**Warnings**: Canon pairings, messing around with said canon pairings, pairings that aren't quite canon but weren't really bothered with in the show anyway, blood, violence, some swearing, and moments of bull. See? Swearing!

Enjoy, if it's any good. I need to go chase some flying pigs out of my yard.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Code Lyoko. I just twisted it up a lot.

(Adaptation notes: In France, school runs from Monday-Saturday, but Wednesdays and Saturdays are half days. I think. That's the way it's writ because I can't find any evidence to the contrary. This chapter takes place on a Wednesday. Also, when I talk about "English" class, I mean English as a foreign language. I'm using American grade names and the American letter grade system, though, cause that's what they use in the dub. Any unfamiliar student mentioned here is a show background character, not strictly an OC.)

* * *

**FIVE  
****A Code: Lyoko Fanfiction  
by CarthageAroura**

**

* * *

Episode #96**  
Paradise Lost_  
(Paradis perdu)_

**Part One**

_March 21, 2007  
7:35  
Kadic Academy Cafeteria _

It wasn't a particularly nice or bad day at Kadic Academy. It was in the middle, sort of overcast, but not many of the students cared. As long as it didn't rain, the weather didn't directly affect their lives. Besides, they had other things to fret about. Considering it was breakfast time, these things mostly involved eating food.

This was precisely what was happening at the table in the farthest corner, which held three perfectly normal Kadic students. Ulrich sat on one side, while Jeremie and Aelita sat on the other. Ulrich was staring out the window, not paying attention to what he was eating. Jeremie was buttering his croissant, and keeping up an easy patter with Aelita about the math homework the previous night. (_"Even if she was trying to teach us the quadratic formula, it might've been more useful for her to teach us the p/q method to solve question 14...")_

If she disliked the topic, she showed no sign. In fact, she seemed to hang on to every word he said, and answered him thoughtfully. It wasn't a closed conversation; Ulrich could contribute a "hmm" or a "yeah", but didn't seem to want to. The couple's chairs were close enough together to be one seat, and not once in ten minutes had they broken eye contact. Ulrich didn't have to look down to know that their hands were intertwined under the table. There was no reason to interrupt them too much, not when they were intent on being that close.

None of them noticed Odd leave the breakfast line and come to the table- at least, not until he slammed his tray down on said table, making them all jump and look up. He either didn't notice or didn't care, and slid into the seat next to Jeremie without a word. There was a pathetic, hurt look on his face, and much less food than usual on his plate. Jeremie looked uncertainly from Odd's tray to his own, sensed the danger, and wolfed down his croissant before anything else could happen to it.

"I don't believe it!" he started. "I asked her nicely, even groveled a bit, and what does she say to me? 'Sorry, Odd, but sniveling and being cute won't get you any more than anyone else anymore!' Lousy service, that's what it is. She had plenty of leftovers, she could've given me some."

"What a tragedy," Ulrich mumbled, grinning behind his styrofoam cup as he drank. Aelita was shaking with hidden laughter.

"I know, right?" Odd went on. Jeremie coughed into his hand. Odd shot him a dirty look, which got dirtier when he realized his croissant was gone.

"Hey, Rosa does have a point," Jeremie said, looking Odd right back in the eye. "What makes you think you're better than us, huh, Odd?" He sounded stern, but his grin gave him away. "What makes you think you deserve more?"

This time, Aelita didn't even try to hide her laugh. Ulrich looked up at her, and then burst out laughing as well. By then, it was too late- all three of them were in hysterics. Odd even chuckled before he could stop himself. "Alright, okay!" He grabbed his toast and shoved it into his mouth, chewing furiously. "Shnot thah funnh."

"No, Odd, it kind of is," Aelita said, composing herself. Absentmindedly, she looked over at the far side of the table, and noticed that the last empty seat at the table, the one next to Ulrich, was devoid of a chair, as well as a person. She looked up at Ulrich, who was still smirking a little. "Yumi's-"

"Eating at home again," he said automatically. "We can just take that for granted by now..." His gaze trailed back to the window.

"Don't hit yourself too hard, Ulrich. You'll have plenty of time to confess your undying love to her before class, just like you did yesterday." She gave him a teasing smile, before her eyes snapped back to Jeremie. "So, you were saying the...oh."

She stopped suddenly, and looked up, past Jeremie. Jeremie, curious to see what she had, turned around. Ulrich and Odd followed suit for similar reasons.

Once they saw, none of them dared to move a muscle on their faces. While they had all been laughing at Odd, an acquaintance of theirs had walked in. He now stood in front of them, a table away. Though dark circles had appeared under William Dunbar's eyes, and his hair was a bit more tousled than it usually was on purpose, he looked very much awake. He was looking in the opposite direction, as if determined not to notice them. Then, still silent, he walked to an empty table at the back of the cafeteria. Not-so-subtle whispers followed in his wake.

"Well..." Jeremie finally said, breaking the uneasy silence that had fallen over the group. "If that's still the way he wants to do it." He looked back down at his tray.

"Are you sure?" Aelita cut in. Jeremie looked startled- he evidently thought his statement would end things. "I mean...he looks a bit pathetic like that." She glanced over at William, alone at his table, with a look that might have been concern.

"Maybe," Jeremie replied, trying to look and sound confident and soothing, "I don't know how his mind works. I'll have to ask Yumi. But he doesn't seem to want to be near us, and the least we could do for him is respect that. Right?"

"Mmm," Aelita mumbled in reply, almost but not quite convinced.

"Sure, whatever," Ulrich muttered, hoping no one could hear him. "If he's going to sulk, it's better if he sulks over there. And I wish he'd keep his distance from _her_, too," he added even more quietly, so that no one actually did hear him.

Odd had been determined to stay out of the conversation. But now that his food was gone, and talk was at an uncomfortable standstill, he had no choice. "Well," he said, trying to sound light and airy, "No one said he's sulking. Maybe he's just-"

**BANG.**

The noise at the entrance cut the tense atmosphere like a knife through cottage cheese. Everyone at the table, and indeed most of the room, looked up and around. The old, long-suffering cafeteria door had been slammed open. Sissi Delmas, following closely behind her own noise, ran in. She ignored the food line entirely, grabbed an extra chair from another table in transit, dragged it over to the corner table, dropped it in the empty space next to Ulrich, and sat on it, smirking in his direction. She looked almost exactly the opposite of how the others currently felt- well-rested and full of wanton energy.

Someone from the next table over whirled round toward her, looking annoyed. "Hey, Delmas, that was ours!"

"This is a community, Jolivet. We share here." She knit her eyebrows and, looking past Odd, frowned at Jolivet. "Besides, you weren't using it."

"Well, yeah..." He looked puzzled. "But you could've asked!"

"Okay then, I'll ask. May I please use your precious chair?" Her voice was high and cheerful. Jolivet stared at her, dumbfounded. She watched him for a second, highly amused.

"I'll take that for a yes." She grinned, then turned to face the other four at the table. They were now also staring at her, open-mouthed, William completely driven from their minds. She grinned wider. She'd gotten their attention. And she really, really liked their attention. "So," she said, flicking away a stray strand of hair, "How are my favorite people in the entire world doing this morning? Do they have plans? Hopes? Dreams? Hm?"

Odd opened his mouth, as if to continue, but thought better of it. The thought of Sissi actually being nice to them, let alone flattering them like this, especially when she had done nothing but taunt, tease, and sometimes stalk them all her life, was still startling, even after a week of considering her a friend. This was not to say, however, that they didn't like having her around. Somehow, she did a good job of lightening the mood when it strayed into darker, nostalgic areas.

Aelita was the icebreaker. "Oh, we're fine, just fine! Couldn't be better if we tried." She gave Sissi a warm smile, which, if possible, made her look even happier. "And, as for plans...er..."

"Who knows," Jeremie finished, helpfully. "It's going to be one of those days where anything can happen."

"Well, hopefully not anything," Odd cut in, confidence now in full swing. "I mean, if anything means I'm going to have to spend it with _you_, Sissi, I'd rather make other plans..."

Sissi laughed more loudly than she might have otherwise, and smacked Odd upside the head. The hysterics began again in earnest, and did not cease for the rest of the meal. Nothing in this world, or any other, could stop their laughter anymore.

* * *

First bell had different effects on different kinds of people. For some people, it meant the end of breakfast and the beginning of the mad rush to the first class. For others, it meant a minute or six to hang around, catch up with friends, and in some cases, laugh and make fun of others rushing by.

Some distance from the cafeteria entrance, two boys loitered near one of the larger old oak trees. One stood slouching against the trunk. He was tall and thin, with long, messy black hair and square-rimmed glasses. He wore an orange shirt, and a contented, leering smile. The other boy, who was sitting rather than standing, looked similar to his friend, though slightly younger. His dark hair was slicked back, and his shirt was purple, and open slightly more at the top. A blue bauble hung from his neck, over said shirt. He appeared apathetic, almost bored, and scratched at the ground with a stick absentmindedly.

"Huh, look at that," the first boy said, pointing toward the cafeteria door. A gaggle of giggling sixth-grade girls had come pouring out of it, so close together that they seemed to function as one. "Hey, Alex, look."

"I can hear them," Alex replied, not looking up. "Why do they have to be so loud? It's not like they deserve attention from anyone."

"Not yet, but they've got potential. That one-" He pointed at a girl near the front, a blonde with pigtails. "If she put her hair down, grew a foot maybe, and shut up, she wouldn't be too bad."

"Better not let _her_ hear you. You never know how it is with girls. She might be the next Sissi Delmas." Alex looked up, adopted a sappy expression, and clasped his hands over his heart in mockery. "'Matt, oh, Matt! Wait up, Matt! I love you, Maaatt!'"

Matt laughed so hard he practically choked on his own breath. "That was brilliant! If I didn't know better, I'd think she was behind me right now." He looked back at the entrance. "Oh hey, there she is. And...of course. She's with_ them_ again."

Another crowd spilled out of the cafeteria and congregated around the steps, as if waiting for something. Sissi was indeed there, sitting next to Ulrich Stern, and talking very quickly about something they couldn't hear. Stern looked about ready to shoot himself. Odd Della Robbia, who sat on his other side, was smoothing his hair, ignoring his friend. Jeremie Belpois and Aelita Stones sat on the next step up, also talking, and stealing glances at the school gate.

"Yeah, them," Alex said, interest finally piqued. "Belpois's gang. The weirdo brigade." He said the last line slowly, mysteriously.

"They're not that weird once you get them away from each other."

"You're only saying that because you think Yumi's hot."

"Hey, she is!" Matt blushed furiously. "And I've told you before, she likes me back. Remember when she kissed me in the vending machines?"

"Yeah, and then never spoke to you again. She was on something. End of story." His eyes narrowed. "Look at them. They're _never_ alone. They're like...a cult or something."

"Maybe they are a cult," Matt said, eyes widening. But before they could get into what sort of ritual worship they might perform after-hours, the group at the cafeteria stood up, just as two figures emerged from the gate- Yumi and Hiroki Ishiyama. Hiroki caught sight of something behind a building and ran off in that direction, while Yumi ran toward the rest of the group, and they exploded into talk. Phrases like 'should've heard Jolivet' and 'need to come down' floated across the lawn to them.

"Hey, Matt, look, it's your girlfriend." Alex nudged his friend in the shin.

"I seen her," he said, grinning. "If she didn't already have those two after her..." As he talked, a seventh figure exited the cafeteria- William Dunbar. It looked as though he had waited for Yumi to show up before emerging. He didn't go toward her, however- he only loitered in the doorway, staring into space. Alex and Matt looked at him, and then at each other. They bust up laughing.

The second bell rang as this was going on. The seven of them looked up in unison. Yumi looked around, caught sight of William, and said something to the rest. The younger set seemed to understand, as they all got up and walked in the direction of the academic buildings. Ulrich tagged along near the back, stealing furtive glances at the two left behind. Said two took off in another direction, toward the Science building. Their backs were to Matt and Alex, so they could not tell if they were talking.

"I can't understand why she wants to hang around with him anymore," Matt muttered under his breath. "Sure, he's attractive enough, but _really_..." It was a second before he realized his friend wasn't listening. "Alex?"

Alex was looking over the other way, toward Jeremie and Aelita in particular. They were still talking, still holding hands, still smiling at one another as though they were the greatest things on Earth. Alex's eyes narrowed further, and a grin spread across his face as he watched Aelita's retreating back...and her face...and her smile.

"Matt?"

"Yeah, what?"

"I just realized...Stones."

Matt was confused. "Yeah...what about her?"

"She's...pretty cute." Matt's jaw dropped, but Alex didn't see it. "Very cute, actually. Terribly cute. A little too cute to be wasted on third-rate outcasts like Belpois and Delmas." He looked her up and down, and his grin got wider. "I think I've got an idea. Spread the word to the usual crowd."

Matt arched an eyebrow. "What word?"

He told him.

* * *

English was not Ulrich's favorite class of the day. Not only did the swirl of verbs and pronouns make it very difficult for him to actually remember anything he was taught, but the teacher, Mr. Smith, was obsessive-compulsive and highly excitable. He was the only teacher in the entire school who insisted on assigned seats. This wasn't so bad (or it wasn't for Ulrich, as he was lucky enough to be in front of Odd) unless one happened to get up during class, which would throw off Mr. Smith's sense of order and likely land one in detention.

Thankfully, Smith was calm just then. He started the class by listing off English nouns relating to food, and insisted that the students copy them down in the exact order that they were said. Ulrich looked at his notebook paper for three seconds before deciding it was pointless to take notes when Jeremie (who was two tables over, with three pages of notes already) was his friend. To make it look like he was doing something, he picked up his pencil and started doodling on the paper.

Behind him, he could hear a _tap-tap, tap-tap _noise. Was Odd texting someone? he wondered. His question was answered relatively quickly, as a girl across the room twitched, pulled her phone out of her pocket, looked at the screen, scowled, and typed a response. Odd swore under his breath as she put the phone away. Then, the _tap-tap_ started again. Ulrich shook his head, half-wishing he could punch his friend. He'd seen this before. And Odd had definitely dated that girl before.

There were a few stick people on his paper now. Smiling suddenly, Ulrich gave one of them a jacket, pants, and scribbly black hair. He tuned out the lesson entirely, and devoted himself to thinking over the next part of the doodle. Should he run a katana through his chest, or maybe set his head on fire? He decided on the latter, and pressed pencil to paper, only to find his hand had frozen. He couldn't bring himself to do it. Grumbling and shaking his head, he abandoned him and went on to another doodle, this one of a far more handsome stick figure giving a dark, beautiful stick figure lady the best snog of her life.

It was a few seconds before he realized the kid in the seat next to his was looking over his shoulder at the doodles. When he did notice, he did a double-take, and tried his hardest not to jump. "Wha-"

"Hey, those are neat," the kid said, ignoring Ulrich's shocked expression. "Are they anyone?"

"No," Ulrich snapped back, turning the page.

The kid blinked. "The girl looks kinda like Yumi Ishiyama."

"She's not." He turned another page.

"Alright." He looked over his shoulder, at the back of the room, and then went back to his own notes. "Missed a line. Eh, whatever, right?"

Ulrich shrugged. He was a little surprised that Alexandre Pepin, as that was his name, was so eager to talk to him. They been in class together since the third grade, but they had rarely, if ever spoken to one another. _Maybe he's as bored as I am_, he thought. He tried to think of another stick figure doodle, but decided he didn't want another interrogation. Instead, he just drew an endless squiggle, or all the squiggle he had time for before a loud noise split the air.

"MOI, MA PLANÈTE EST NET, JE VIENS PÊCHER EN LIGNE CHAQUE JOUR..."

The entire class looked at the back of the room. A girl was tearing frantically through her bag, trying to find her phone. The boys were laughing, and the girls were looking on in concern. Finally, Aelita, her deskmate, grabbed it out of an inside pocket and shut off the offending noise. The only person who hadn't looked or gotten up at all was Odd, who slipped his phone back into his bag, looking very guilty.

A fair few looked back to the front, to see the effect the noise would have on Mr. Smith. It was just as wonderful as they had hoped. He was pacing up and down the front of the room, hands on his head, looking disturbed.

"[Interruptions!]_" _he shouted in English._ "_[All this noise, every single day! I can't stand it anymore!]" He tore down the aisle, stopped at the girl's desk, and held out his hand. "Give it to me, now!"

There were a few quick giggles. The girl reached into her bag, and took out the phone. She started to hand it to Mr. Smith, but got another idea halfway to his hand. She pulled it back, opened it, smiled, and read, in a very loud voice, "Hey babe, u meet me at the woods 2nite? txt y/y. xoxo, ODD DELLA ROBBIA."

The giggles turned into universal laughter and catcalls. Now everyone was looking at Odd, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to sink into the floor. Ulrich whirled round to face his friend, and gave him a mocking, gleeful him, Alex gave a low whistle. None of their reactions compared to Mr. Smith's, however. After yanking the phone from the girl, he ran up the aisle so fast that he appeared to teleport to Odd's desk. He grabbed him by the collar and opened his mouth, but was too overcome with stress to say anything.

"[This...this has gone on too long,]" he finally concluded, releasing him into his chair, where he glared at his desk. "[Now everything's out of order...back to your books! And you, see me after class,]" he growled at Odd. He marched back to the front of the classroom, and kept teaching as though nothing had happened, leaving a stunned class scrambling to take notes down. With a last stunned look at Odd, Ulrich too sat down, staring at his blank paper. He wrote about a line of the lesson, and then gave up.

"Well, that was interesting," someone whispered. Ulrich turned to see Alex facing him again, now intent on a conversation.

Ulrich shrugged in agreement. "Eh. Not at all surprising."

"I heard that," Odd whispered.

"I know you did," Ulrich deadpanned back, not turning back to look.

"Heh. Well, I guess it's good you two are friends," Alex went on, catching the thread of conversation from Odd, who had gone back to his own doodle-filled notebook page. "Or that habit of his might get annoying."

"Annoying? Hah." Ulrich didn't realize how loud his voice was getting. "That's hardly the worst of it. A few times, I-"

"[Stern! Pepin!]" Smith stopped midway through a sentence and pointed at Ulrich, looking livid. "[Don't speak French in my class! And get back to your notes, I don't see anything on your papers!]"

"[Yes, sir,]" Ulrich mumbled. He waited a minute before turning back to Alex. "S'all the English I know."

"Me too. Say, uh..." He thought for a second. "Are you doing anything at break? Wanna play a round of foosball in the Rec Room?"

"Uhm..." A knot formed in Ulrich's stomach, but he shook it off. Sure, he wasn't that close with Alex, or anyone besides his old friends. But something in the back of his mind was telling him that this was a good idea. Besides, he liked foosball, and Odd wasn't going to be there to play. "Sure, okay."

"Great, that's great." He smiled at him. "Now, shut up. If this is going to happen, you can't get detention too."

Ulrich nodded, and turned to face front. Somehow, he felt good, like he'd made progress on some sort of unknown project. To make a long story short, he kept his promise for the rest of class. By the end, he actually had half a page of notes, along with a few more Yumi stick figures and a rather detailed drawing of a katana. He was so absorbed, he entirely failed to notice that his deskmate kept stealing glances at the back of the classroom, watching one girl, and grinning in anticipation.

* * *

"And...go!"

The ball popped out of the chute, and soccer players on sticks went flying every which way to keep the ball away from their side's goal. After about a minute's heated wrestle, Alex accidentally-on-purpose slid his goalie left instead of right, allowing the ball to roll right into the goal. He swore as he extracted the ball. "That's another one for you, Stern."

"Huh, wow." Ulrich slid his score marker over, unsurprised. "I gotta say, though, you're good. S'not usually this hard when I'm playing against Odd."

"S'not usually this hard when I'm playing against anyone." Alex stepped away from the handles, and leaned against the goal side of the foosball table. "'Course, considering you're Mr. Big-Shot Soccer Player, I shouldn't be surprised."

"Shut up," Ulrich shot back, laughing. "Foosball's nothing like soccer. This is more speed and luck than actual strategy." He spun one of his players around. "And, of course, there's a lot less running."

"Right. How's that going, anyway? You know, the sports. I haven't been to too many of the games lately..." Alex played with the ball in his hands, instead of putting it back in the chute. "Are we winning? Losing?"

"Um..." This wasn't the question Ulrich wanted to be asked. He looked to the side, blushing a bit. "I...don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" He put the ball back, and went around the table to Ulrich. "I mean, you're on the team."

"Well...not anymore." Ulrich admitted, in a small voice. "I didn't get on the team this season. Actually, I didn't exactly try out...at all..."

He trailed off, trying to make it sound unimportant. Alex, however, looked utterly thunderstruck. "What? You didn't try out? But-" He took a second to find the right words. "Aren't you supposed to be the best player in the whole school, or something? And you really like it, right? So why the hell didn't you try out?"

"I..." Ulrich felt himself sweating. "I'm busy, alright? I need time to...you know...study."

"Aren't you a C student?"

"I need all the time I can get."

He almost added that he'd gotten a loud, shouty visit from his father earlier that year after letting his grades slip, and really wanted to avoid a repeat episode. But, he then thought, that was none of Alex's business. Besides, as he thought of that visit, he was painfully reminded that he was, indeed, a C student. Even since then, he hadn't paid any more attention to his grades at all. They'd been secondary, just like the soccer team, compared to fighting on Lyo-

"Look, you can't really be studying all the time," Alex went on, bringing Ulrich back to earth. "Tell you what. If you really want to play, you can just go to Jim, and ask him if you can try out mid-season. Like I said, you're one of the best players, and Jim's really into the teams. He'll probably put you right on without a tryout at all. And soccer's just as good, right? I mean, it's school-related."

Ulrich sat down against the wall, thinking. Now that he did have the time, to put it simply, he could definitely make it back on the team. Yes, he could...maybe he could. And if he followed up on his alibi, and spent a bit more time with his books...a mental image of his father popped up in his mind, but he shook it away. No, he thought. This is for me, my own future, whatever I can accomplish.

"I'll give it a shot," he said, finally, standing up. "I'll try and get to Jim after lunch."

"See?" He held up his hand for a high-five, which Ulrich took. "You're a cool guy, I knew you could do it. And if you can't, well, who needs them, then?"

"Uh...okay?"

"Yeah, of course it's okay. You have to do what you want to get what you want. In fact..." Alex's face lit up- this appeared to be the climax of whatever he had been trying to say. "I've been thinking since we started talking...I might need to explain a bit. I'm a day student, y'know, and my parents are out of town for the week. They took the liquor cabinet, but they didn't lock the door, so I'm throwing a small party tonight, just for Kadic's best. And, if you're not too busy _studying_ to come, well, this is your invite."

"Huh?" Ulrich's eyes went wide. The word 'party' was strange and unfamiliar against his brain; the last real party he could remember going to had been the school techno party the previous year, and even that had been interrupted, as everything in his life had been for the past few years. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, stupid. And, if you want, you could ask those other kids you hang out with to meet me in the Quad after school, so I can pass the invite on to them. Then, you won't be alone." He grinned at him. "I think you need a little more time in the real world, Stern."

Ulrich continued to think. The thought of the rest of his friends being invited made the prospect of actually going a little more realistic and acceptable. Even as he was beginning to accept that the party might be worth it, one person stood out in his mind, one person he could possibly be alone with the entire night. Alone, without her stalker. Because, as he would make clear to Alex if he needed to, he didn't hang out with William.

"I'll be there." He smiled reassuringly. "But, I could tell them. You don't have to take time out of setting up or anything."

"Oh, no. I like to make my invites personally, so I can keep track of who's actually coming." He put his chin in his hand, as if thinking. "Speaking of that, you know how Delmas has been hanging around you for-"

"Ever?"

"Yeah. I'd be happier if she, well, you know..."

"Oh, I'll get rid of her, no problem at all," Ulrich said, reading his mind. Even if Sissi wasn't acting like the terror she usually was, she was still annoying, and still attached to him like a human-sized leech. It was a wonder she wasn't next to him there and then. But more importantly, she got in the way of the fantasy he had for this party.

"Good. Really good. Now, what time is it...?" He pulled out his phone, and looked at the time. He swore again. "Running out of time. I have to go do my Science homework."

"Why's that so bad?"

"That's next period."

"Then run! I'm not stopping you." Alex followed Ulrich's words to a T- he darted out of the Rec Room without another word. Left in peace, Ulrich gathered his bags. He thought he would either head to English and wait for Odd, or else try and find Yumi, Jeremie and Aelita, or even Sissi to pass the time. He didn't need to, however. Barely a second after Alex left, Odd came in, looking like he'd been out in a heavy windstorm. Several older girls clustered around the TV looked up to watch him pass, and didn't even try to hide a new chorus of giggles and catcalls.

With this in his ears, Odd looked very relieved to spot Ulrich, and ran to get to him. "Hey!" He held out his fist, which Ulrich pounded back. "I didn't think I'd actually have any break. I thought he'd never stop shouting. And now them..." He looked toward the girls.

Ulrich just shrugged. "Hey, I'm sorry, but stuff like that gets around. Kind of...well, kind of like you."

"Oho, you're funny. What's the big deal, though?" Odd slouched against the foosball table, facing his friend. "It's more her problem than mine. She didn't have to read that aloud. It's not a crime to have a change of heart."

"That wasn't a change of heart, Odd. That was at least fifteen." Though Ulrich did sound serious, he was grinning mischievously. "I'm sorry to say it, but you've had a reputation for a while. Every girl at Kadic knows you're a serial dater. And not many of them take you seriously anymore."

"I'm not a serial dater!" Odd looked frustrated. "I just change my mind a lot. Besides, I texted nine girls. _Nine_."

"Do you even hear yourself talk?" Ulrich rolled his eyes.

Odd didn't answer him. He had taken out his phone, and was scrolling through his contacts, his face darkening as he looked at each one. "Blocked, blocked, blocked. Okay, you might be right. A bit." He closed his phone, looking forlorn. "So, is that it? Am I doomed to be a monk for the rest of my life?"

"Well, no..." As much as Ulrich didn't like to indulge his friend's womanizing ways, Odd did look upset. "I told you before. You just need to take your time, and treat girls like you actually care about them. And maybe eventually have a relationship that lasts a bit longer than a week."

"Easy for you to say...but you might have a point. What an awful day. First breakfast, now this..." He straightened up and walked over to the wall next to Ulrich, where he slouched. His eyes were fixed on the Quad outside the open door, where a group of seventh-graders were hanging out under another large old oak tree. Ulrich considered telling him about Alex's party to cheer him up, but before he could, he started talking again. "You think they'd care that much?"

Ulrich looked out the door, and then back at Odd, shaking his head. "You're not seriously-"

"Probably not. But, still. Sometimes they aren't as childish as they look." He walked a little closer to the door, while still maintaining a good angle. He looked at all the girls, muttering things under his breath. "Veronique? No, she's way too immature. Julie looks too much like that girl that rejected me. Ninon...oho, what's this?"

Ulrich knew there was going to be trouble as soon as he saw who Odd was looking at. Standing right under the tree, microphone in one pocket, pen and paper in another, deep in conversation with her camera-holding best friend, was...

"No. No way."

"Yes way."

"It can't work."

"Yes it can."

"Odd, what- why would you ever want to date Milly Solovieff?"

"There's no law against it." Odd didn't look away from her. "Besides, you took her to prom last year. I have her oversized mutant teddy bear as my witness."

This is ridiculous, Ulrich thought for many reasons. "You know as well as I do that was a pity date. And back then, the journalism obsession was kind of cute. Now, it's annoying."

"Well, that proves she's got determination. And plenty of other good qualities. She's..." He tried to think of something deep and impressive. "She's intelligent, she has a definite goal in life, she can probably hold a conversation..."

"You already mentioned the teddy bear..."

"Which doesn't matter as long as it stays small and cuddly. Besides, she's _grown _a lot since that prom." He grinned.

"Well, sure, but still...she's..._Milly_." Ulrich threw his hands in the air. "Odd, she's the head of the frickin' newspaper. If that's not asking for a messy breakup, I don't know wha-Odd?" Instinctively, he looked up. Odd, who appeared to have ignored him, was already several feet away, eyes on the prize.

"Odd..." he grumbled, rather louder than he intended. Odd turned right back around, eyebrow arched. Ulrich blinked, and then remembered something. "You know, Milly's popular with the younger guys. Hiroki Ishiyama has a pretty serious crush on her. If you just swoop in and take her..."

Odd laughed so hard, he nearly fell over. He was still sniggering by the time he got back on task. Ulrich watched him with detached interest. He couldn't hear what was going on, but he saw most of what he expected.

Odd approached the two girls, wearing a cool grin, and started a casual conversation with Milly. Tamiya, who was entirely ignored, looked just slightly skeptical, but if Milly had any intention of turning Odd down, she didn't show it- she appeared almost too enthusiastic to talk to him. Both of them appeared oblivious to the growing crowd of sniggering girls around them.

Ulrich couldn't tell exactly when Odd asked her out, but he saw-and heard- her reaction. She blushed bright red, smiled as wide as her face would let her, and screeched "YES! YES!" at the top of her lungs, sounding as excited as if Odd had proposed to her. She then whirled around and said something at top speed to Tamiya. Tamiya said something else, smiled, and shrugged. Her eyes never left Odd- and it wasn't an approving look she gave him, either.

Just as Ulrich was preparing to look away from any spontaneous display of affection, the bell rang, signaling the end of break. Milly looked around, said something else to Odd, and then kissed him on the cheek (Ulrich was surprised to find that neither of them had to bend up or down at all) before darting off to her classes with Tamiya, who had taken off far earlier. Odd was in far less of a hurry. He strolled back to Ulrich, looking very pleased with himself. "Well, what do you know? It worked. Really well."

"I'm as shocked as you are." He shook his head. "I'll give you two hours."

"I'll give us two weeks." Odd smiled at Ulrich's incredulous look. "What? It's longer than a week."

"You're a moron."

"Sure am, Ulrich, but I'm a moron with a lady love." Still looking like he was on top of the world, Odd strolled ahead of Ulrich, toward Science class. Ulrich followed him after a second. He didn't say much else to him, as his head was too full of other things to make room for idle conversation. Alex, the party, Odd, Milly, his dad, soccer, his friends...his life...and how it was all so different than it had been a week ago.

* * *

"You really think that's going to happen?"

"I don't see any other way they're going to do it," Aelita took a sip from her cup of hot chocolate. "If Bastian Lestrange leaves the show, Dr. Shrank is going to have to have another 'disfiguring lab accident' to cover up the new actor, whoever he's going to be."

"So that's how they do it." Jeremie put his hand to his chin. "I always thought they just pretended not to notice."

"I guess it's not something_ you _really need to know." Aelita smiled at him, a little too enthusiastically for the nature of the topic. "I wonder if Odd knows, though." She put her cup on the floor, came out of the small shelter where the vending machines were kept, and looked around the open Quad. "Do you think he's done yet?"

"I wouldn't waste your time. Mr. Smith isn't exactly known for his brevity." Jeremie chuckled a bit under his breath. "But...do you see anyone else?"

"Actually, no," she went on. "Yumi's probably with William, but...where's Ulrich? He's usually here with us at break..."

"I thought I saw him talking to Alexandre Pepin on the way out of English today." Jeremie stared at the wall as he said this. "Maybe he's with him."

"I didn't know they were on speaking terms..." Aelita looked back inside, at her best friend. Her eyebrows knit in concern, and she walked back over to him, touching his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he mumbled, unconvincingly. "Maybe that's just what it's going to come to. We're going to find other friends, have other lives, go our separate ways...maybe keep in touch a bit, but...it's not going to be like it was. I mean, with us as a real team, and something to keep us together..."

Aelita knew instantly what he was talking about. She shook her head, smiling, and wrapped her arm around hers, joining hands. "Jeremie, don't get like this. I highly doubt that any of us will ever really abandon each other. Break off, maybe, because of changes in circumstances, but, in a way, we know we should be happy that it isn't like it was..."

She trailed off, much like Jeremie had moments earlier, and looked at the ground before she could stop herself. It was now Jeremie's turn to look concerned. "Aelita..."

"And I'll be here," she began again, suddenly, looking up and changing her face as if nothing had happened. "I mean, all of you are the only people I really know, or trust. And even then, you..." Her face brightened, and before Jeremie could react, she kissed him on the cheek. "I can't even begin to describe how special you are to me."

Jeremie blushed so hard, his face was almost purple. One could almost see steam pouring out of his ears. Aelita just smiled, and didn't let go of his hand.

It was in this position that Yumi found them as she stepped into the shelter, her bag in one hand, and two Euros in the other. They didn't notice her at all until she spoke to them, also smiling, though she didn't realize it. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything..."

"Yumi!" Aelita jumped away from Jeremie and looked at Yumi, as though trying to hide the tender moment she had just shared with him. "Of course not! We wouldn't just shoo you out of here."

"It's the school's vending machines, you couldn't if you tried," Yumi replied, a joking tone in her voice. She inserted the first of her Euros in the drink machine, and waited for the cup to fill.

"Why would we want to?" Jeremie said, looking overjoyed. "I've hardly seen you all day. Actually, come to think of it, I've hardly seen you all week."

"What can I say? My parents are happier when I eat meals with them and come home on time, and if they're happy with me, they're happy with...other things." She put the first filled cup on the floor, and started the process of dispensing the second. "Besides..."

She jerked her head toward the outside. Jeremie and Aelita walked to the entrance, trying to look as casual as possible. They saw exactly what they expected- William, still baggy-eyed and messy-haired, sitting on a bench under a nearby tree. Curiously, he was reading a big, heavy school textbook. Three more were piled beside him. He was reading the book with a wide-eyed, ravenous look on his face, as though he was trying as hard as he could to memorize every word he read.

"He's...studying," Aelita said, stating the obvious.

"I think that's January's science unit," Yumi said in a flat sort of voice. "He's already been through all of the History notes, and he's gone over the stuff for the math test this Friday at least a dozen times."

"O-kay..." Jeremie said, sounding confused. "Are you making him do this?"

"No, he's doing it himself. He's obsessed." She took a deep breath before continuing. "His grades weren't stellar to begin with, and then the clone decimated all his classwork and test scores. At this rate, he might pass the year." She picked up the second cup and took a long drink. "I'm lucky I've been here so long. Usually I can't go ten seconds without him asking me a question about something or other."

Neither of them laughed. Jeremie's face hardened, and he put his chin in his hand, looking thoughtful. "That doesn't seem like normal behavior for him...of course, considering the circumstances, I'm not criticizing it..." He looked up at Yumi. "How's he holding up? Is he showing any signs of stress at all?"

"If he was, he'd be a lot louder about it. But he's been...quiet." She watched him turn a page in his book. "You'd think he'd throw a fit or something, be more forward or angry about what happened to him...but he's like us. He's taken a realistic stance, and now he's trying to move on. He doesn't even talk about it...and he doesn't notice when people laugh at him anymore."

"Maybe it changed him," Aelita said, a small tremor in her voice. "So he's not acting like himself."

Yumi started, and looked back to her friends. "That might make a lot of sense. Considering..."

"Considering?"

"Well, he's seemed kind of...distracted over the last two days. He'll just...stare off into space, and then snap back, like he didn't know what he was doing. But, I'm sure he'll get over it. He wants to." Yumi shook her head. "So, that's been week one as a homework help button...how about you guys?" Her eyes widened, and she looked around. "Wait, where are Ulrich and Odd?"

Jeremie and Aelita looked at each other, and gave Yumi identical confused grins. "Well, uh-"

"You mean you didn't hear yet?" The high, shrill voice made them all jump- a dangerous situation for Yumi, as she almost stepped on the other cup. None of them had seen Sissi approach, but she was indeed there, leaning against the other side of the wall and wearing a grin a mile wide. "For shame, Yumi, I'm a bit disappointed. Odd's in detention. Our little pet Casanova got caught asking girls out by text-message in English class. And it turned into quite a spectacle, you should have seen it."

In another world, Yumi might have said a few choice words to Sissi for talking that way about her friend. In this case, however, she just smiled back, and shook her head. "Smith's class? Of course it was a spectacle. Is Ulrich waiting for him or something?"

"Is he?" Sissi now turned to Jeremie and Aelita. "I mean, if he's not with him, and he's not with you..."

"Then it's none of our business where he is," Aelita cut in, possibly saving Ulrich's life by not revealing his location. "In any case, don't waste your break waiting for them. Stay here a bit, get a drink."

"Well, that was what I was going to do anyway, but thank you. You're sweet, Aelita." She reached into her bag, probably to get a Euro, before noticing the small cup on the ground. "Is that anyone's?"

"Oh! I forgot..." Yumi bent down to grab the cup. "Still sort of warm. William wanted me to get this for him. Completely forgot..."

"William?" Sissi shouted, apparently unaware of her volume level. She whirled toward the outside, and got a good look at the bench where William sat alone. "You still hang out with him? I thought you guys were staying away from each other." It was hard to tell whether she sounded excited or merely surprised.

"I changed my mind. Mostly."

"...Oh." Sissi threw him a sour look. "God, what a dork. Look at him sitting there, all awkward and alone." She paused for a beat, and then turned back to Yumi, her expression considerably brighter. "Of course, if he _is_ your friend, then that's totally okay. Who knows, I might be wrong about him..."

"Nice try," Yumi muttered under her breath. "Look, can we talk about something besides William? Please?"

Her words were met with an awkward silence. After about twenty seconds, Jeremie coughed, looked around, and then said, tentatively, "Uh...did you guys know Bastian Lestrange is leaving Hospital of Horrors?"

"Already?" Now, four of them jumped in response to a sudden, unfamiliar voice. William had appeared, sans all books, leaning against the side of the entrance. Despite having answered Jeremie, he wasn't looking at him, or any of them at all. He was staring very intently at the soup machine.

"Uh..." Jeremie's throat froze for a second. "Yeah! From what I hear, anyway..."

William completely ignored him. He turned right to Yumi, making eye contact for the first time. "Do you get anything that happened in Chapter 28? They keep going on about wavelengths and Greek letters, and I still don't get what the hell that has to do with atoms."

"Oh-" Yumi looked a little startled. "Well, no, but I'll give it a shot. Sorry about the drinks, got a little distracted..." She smiled at Sissi, who was scowling in the other direction, and then at Jeremie and Aelita, who looked determined not to make themselves seen.

"Mmm. C'mon." He made a move, as if to grab her arm, but Yumi waved him away, and made as if to follow him out.

Unseen by both of them, Aelita twitched. A thought entered her head, and she called out after them. "The electrons in an atom release photons of energy when they leave an excited state. The wavelength of this photon is the difference in energy between the two states."

William stopped halfway out. He backtracked a bit- Yumi nearly bumped into him- and looked right at Aelita. He didn't reply, but stared at Aelita for a bit, as if the sight of her made him think of something that had nothing to do with wavelengths and photons. Aelita shivered. "I hope that helps."

For a second, William didn't move. Then, he straightened up, nodded his thanks, and strode away, clearly not intending to come back. Yumi followed him, after shrugging at everyone else left in the shelter.

"Well..." Sissi was determined to prevent any more awkward silences. She came closer to Jeremie and Aelita, smile back in place. "That was strange! Those two..." She laughed. "Well, as long as I'm here..."

Whatever she would have said next, she never said it. At that moment, a loud "YES! YES!" split the air, spoken in another less familiar voice. Sissi practically jumped with excitement. "Ooh, what's this? C'mon, let's go see!" She didn't bother to check whether or not Jeremie and Aelita were following her as she looked out. "Hey, that's Odd! Odd and...woah, what the hell is going on?"

Aelita didn't react. She was acting a bit like William, staring at inanimate objects with a glazed look in her eyes. Jeremie made a guess at what was going through her mind- and he didn't like it at all. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't think about him. You know he wouldn't want you to be miserable."

Aelita looked up at him, and nodded. Her eyes were shining, but Jeremie didn't see anything that looked like tears. Without any further warning, she pulled him into a bear hug, and refused to let go. Jeremie didn't mind this at all. If she smothered him to death, he was going to die a fulfilled man.

In front of them, Sissi continued to shout out the entrance. "Hey, what? Odd and _Milly_? What-what kind of joke is this? Hey, is this one of your stupid practical jokes? This isn't funny! You're not funny at all, Odd, not funny at all! Odd? Why aren't you answering me? Odd? ODD!"

* * *

And, cut to commercial. Oh sweet jeebus I finished a chapter. I'd like to give a big thank you to Stonecreek, who's still my ever-patient beta, and to Wikipedia, for helping me understand what wavelengths and Greek letters and whatnot have to do with atoms better than my Chemistry class ever did.

- Carth


	2. Paradise Lost, Part 2

I never thought I'd actually get to writing the second chapter! Sweet Jesus, now I'm happy. I expected it to come this easily even less. It didn't take as long as the first, that's for sure. Anyway, in this chapter, we say hello to a good friend of mine, the plot. I'll hand you over to him to entertain you until you close the page.

This is the replaced, far better version. Also, as it turns out, Wednesdays are full days in France. Sooo, it'll be that from now on! And "after lunch" is now after school.

**Disclaimer**: Maybe if I owned stock in Moonscoop, I'd own a tiny bit of Code Lyoko. But I'm not sure if the French do their stocks the same way as the US does...so I don't own Code Lyoko.

* * *

Paradise Lost**  
Part Two**

_March 21, 2007  
4:35 PM  
Kadic Quad_

Yumi was very, very impatient.

Every part of her body was fidgeting. Her toes were tapping, her fingers were twisting, and she was swaying from side to side against the wall of one of the academic buildings, humming tunelessly to herself. None of the other kids passing by paid her any mind, except, after a few minutes, for one. A dark-haired boy, whom she vaguely recognized as being in Ulrich's grade, was strolling down the path, turning his head from left to right.

When he saw her, he smiled, but he didn't show any excitement otherwise. He walked over at exactly the same pace he had been walking before and stopped in front of her. He was half a head shorter than she was, but the look on his face suggested that he thought himself to be several feet taller.

"Hello," he said, calm and pleasant. "Ishiyama, right?"

"Um, yes." Yumi arched an eyebrow, curious.

"Okay, good. Then everything's going well." He looked around, more for effect than anything. "Where are your friends?"

Yumi's eyebrow went higher. "Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, sorry. Didn't Ulrich tell you?"

"Ulrich?" Something clicked in her head. "He told me to wait here and then bolted. That was a while ago..."

"Right." Alex leaned against the wall, next to Yumi. His expression hardened a bit. "He must've gone to talk to Jim."

"Why'd he want to talk to Jim?"

"Something to do with the soccer team. Where are they? It's important."

Yumi looked toward the nearest building. "Aelita's in there. I think Jeremie's waiting for her. Odd ran off somewhere, and Sissi-"

"Okay, okay, that's all I needed to know. Do you know if..."

"I only know what he told me."

Alex paused for a beat. "You know, Matthias Burel's a friend of mine."

"Uh-" Yumi was just starting to think of a reply when she noticed two familiar figures in the distance. She looked past Alex. "Oh, hey, there's Odd. Odd and...oh..."

"Hm?" Alex turned around, and looked about as shocked as Yumi did. Odd was indeed walking toward them, but he was intertwined with an unexpected carry-on: Milly. They appeared to be unaware of anything besides each other. As Yumi and Alex watched, he reached into one of her pockets and stole her notepad. She chased him for about ten seconds before she got it back (or rather, he let go of it as she reached for it) and tapped him lightly on the head with it. They finished off the routine with a kiss. Yumi resisted the urge to pretend to vomit.

"Hold on, I'll be right back. Yumi!" Odd disentangled himself and ran to his friend. Milly didn't appear to get the message. She followed him over and gave everyone a quick wave and wide smile before fusing to him again. Odd pretended not to notice, but his stupid grin gave him away. "Where's Ulrich?"

Yumi was dumbstruck; she couldn't say anything. Alex gave them a condescending sort of look, but grinned despite himself. "Er, nice girlfriend," he said, as anyone else might compliment a coat or a body part.

"She's not just a 'nice' girlfriend, she's a brilliant one," Odd retorted, hugging Milly even closer to his side. Milly didn't talk; she seemed beside herself at the amount of attention she was getting. "And that's why I really need to find Ulrich." He dropped his voice to an ineffectual whisper. "I need to rub it in his face. He said we wouldn't last two hours, and in half an hour, it'll be three."

"Oh, yes, you're clearly perfect for each other," Yumi said, trying, for Milly's sake, not to roll her eyes.

"See what I mean?" Odd lifted his voice slightly, to make sure Milly might hear. "She's smart, creative, and unlike some people-" he lowered his voice again- "she doesn't give a damn about my exes. She told me so herself. Five minutes ago."

"Sure I did," Milly said, speaking for the first time. "He wouldn't be interesting if he didn't have a scandal or two." She gave him a fawning look, which he returned.

"Or sixty-nine," Alex muttered. Now about as impatient as Yumi had been, he looked up at where Yumi had directed him. As if on cue, the door opened at that very moment, revealing Aelita, the girl he wanted to see the most, and Jeremie, the boy he wanted to see the least. Desperate to hurry things along, he waved to them. "Aelita! Jeremie! Over here!"

"Huh?" Jeremie looked up at Alex, then over to the others, then over at Aelita. They shrugged at each other. Whatever confused them, it didn't stop them from joining the group. Yumi and Odd, with Milly as a saddlebag, greeted them both warmly, which they returned with the same readiness, ignoring the extra person.

Aelita got to teasing Odd (_"Are you really serious about this? Of course not, why did I even ask? Never mind, if this is what you want..."_), leaving Jeremie, who had given them only a quick disbelieving look, free to explore his curiosity. He turned to Alex, and raised an eyebrow. "Do you need anything?"

"Maybe," he retorted. He scanned the Quad, looking for Ulrich, but he was nowhere in sight. Then he looked at Aelita, who was now speaking cordially with Milly, though she kept throwing Odd taunting looks. He couldn't wait any longer. Before Jeremie could say anything, he walked up to Aelita, cutting her off mid-sentence.

"Aelita," he started, grabbing her attention, and almost grabbing her shoulder. "Nice to see you. I don't think we've spoken in a while."

"Uh..." Aelita looked up into Alex's face, somewhat curious. Neither of them noticed Jeremie boring a hole in Alex with his stare, or Milly's hand flying automatically to her notepad, or Yumi and Odd not noticing. "Oh, Alex. Nice to see you, too. And, I'm sorry, I don't know if I've ever really talked to you..."

"Well, that's alright," he went on, in a soothing tone. "So...are you excited for tonight?"

Aelita arched an eyebrow. "What's tonight?"

"_What's tonight_?" he intoned, in mock frustration. "Youdon't know yet? We need to fix that." He raised his voice, and looked up. "All of you listening?"

"Mhm," Aelita mumbled politely. Jeremie appeared at her side and squeezed her left hand tightly. Milly attached herself to Odd again, as if horrified that she had been pulled away from him for all of four minutes. All of them were now looking at Alex, more confused than genuinely interested. Yumi kept stealing glances at the gym, as if desperate to see what wasn't there.

"So," Alex began, pacing back and forth, "As you all _should_ have known, my parents are out of town, so I can do whatever I want with my house tonight. So, I'm hosting a small shindig for the best of Kadic's best, which just happens to include all of you, so..."

He paused, to allow for reactions. Odd's and Milly's were just as enthusiastic as he feared (_"A party? At Pepin's? I've heard so much about it. It's enormous, secluded...Odd, this is going to be fantastic! There's going to be so much to write about in next week's issue!" "See, Milly, I told you! When you're with me, great dates just fall right out of the sky!"_). He was happy to see stars in Aelita's eyes, though not so much about her expressing this excitement to Jeremie (_"Wow! I don't think we've been to a party in ages. Are we going to go?"_). Jeremie was grunting answers, and rolling his eyes. Yumi said nothing, but she definitely brightened a bit.

"Now, I could have spread this through the grapevine, especially as your friend Ulrich wanted you all there so badly..." He paused again. Odd took the chance to talk _("Wow! So he's not totally useless after all, is he?")_, but otherwise, everyone was fairly silent. "But," he went on, "I wanted to make a request." Again, he turned to Aelita, now casually placing a hand on her shoulder. "I was hoping Kadic's 'Miss Subdigitals Contest Winner' could manage the music tonight."

There was a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs", and a "Do it, Aelita!" from Odd. Aelita herself flushed slightly, not just because of the request, but also Alex's personal space invasion. She turned to smile at Jeremie, perhaps to find some encouragement, but as Jeremie was too busy holding back rage to do anything like that, she turned away without an answer. Different ideas spun through her head, but eventually one throttled the others.

She smiled at Alex. "I don't see why not. Sure, I'll do it."

"That's great. That's fantastic!" He took his hand away, so as not to overstay his welcome. He spoke in Aelita's direction, but louder now. "My house is at the end of Mouscadet Street. There's no way you can miss it. Party kicks off at eight, and I don't care when it ends..." He now spoke directly to Aelita. "Though I think you should be there a little earlier, to set up and all. All your stuff..."

"It's in the gym, I think."

"Yes, it is. Well, that's all. Except..." He lowered his voice, making sure no one else heard. "Try to dress nice. You have all of Kadic to impress."

Aelita gave him a confused look, but nodded. Jeremie turned to her, and mouthed, _what did he say_? None of the others noticed this tension. Yumi was still staring daggers at the gym. Milly broke free of Odd, and walked up behind Alex, smiling expectantly. "Alex? Can I ask you something important?"

Alex turned, looking annoyed. "Hm?"

"Um, do you know if Tamiya's been invited? You know, my best friend, Tamiya Diop? She doesn't go to parties much, and..."

Alex's smile became rather fixed. "Ah. Well, you know, I never thought of that. I'll have to see if I have room..." He looked from her face, to Odd's, to Aelita's. "Well, sure, alright. What does it matter?"

"Yes!" Milly jumped up, ecstatic. "I can't wait to tell her, she'll be so excited!" She made as if to hug Alex, but he took a step back, sending a clear message of distance.

"Wonderful. Well..." He checked his wrist, which did not have a watch on it. "Look at the time. I should get to setting up if I expect to keep things going for very long..." He turned in Aelita's direction. "I'll see you tonight. Say hi to Ulrich for me." He waved at Aelita, and ran for the gate before anything else could be expected of him.

Jeremie, Aelita, Yumi, Odd, and Milly stared after him, dazed but excited. Jeremie was no longer in any semblance of a good mood. He turned back to Aelita. "You can't really want to do this."

"But I do." Aelita's smile devolved into an uneasy grimace. "Sure, he did act a bit sketchy..."

"A lot sketchy, you mean."

"Okay, a lot sketchy..." She shook her head, as if dismissing a thought. "But don't worry about me. Like I said, he gave us a great offer. Aren't you excited? At all? A little?" He didn't reply. Knowing a lost cause, she turned away. "Are you excited, Yumi? Yumi?"

Yumi wasn't listening. Somewhere in the background, a loud, barking voice was swelling in volume. It segued perfectly from an indistinct howl into actual words. "...do it next year like everyone else," they could now hear, "But you can't always count on good looks and talent to get you everywhere in life! Even I have lost many a potential job by counting on my résumé to do everything for me, even if I arrived five hours late to the interview." There was a short pause. "I'd rather not talk about it! Now, don't let me see you anywhere near the team until next September!"

Almost on cue, two people emerged from behind the gym. The first, Jim, ambled off toward the dorms, while the other, Ulrich, shuffled toward the crowd by the cafeteria. He looked to be in one of his worse sour moods; he was looking at the ground, and not bothering to not kick up dust. "Stupid team," he was mumbling. "Stupid team, stupid sports..."

"Ulrich?" He looked up. He had wandered next to Yumi without realizing it. Both of them repressed the blush reflex, and smiled placidly at each other before Yumi went on. "I don't think I need to ask..."

"No, no you don't." Ulrich shook his head, and came up looking just slightly more cheerful. "Uh, did-"

"Yes," Jeremie grumbled.

He was the least enthused by a long shot. Odd, upon realizing that Ulrich was there, ran to his side and threw his arms over his neck. "Ulrich," he said, in a simpering voice, "Have I ever told you that I love you?"

Jeremie covered his eyes. Milly covered her mouth, but still let out a high-pitched giggle. Ulrich flinched, looking terrified. "No, and I don't want you to start now."

He threw Odd off of him. Odd looked disappointed, but recovered instantly. "Well, whether you want it or not..." He grabbed Milly again. "You just gave me and Milly here the perfect date!"

"Yeah, thank you!" Milly waved at Ulrich with her free hand, still looking entirely too smiley.

"Um, you're welcome..." Ulrich tried to look away. "So, I guess that means you guys are going?"

"Of course we are," Yumi said, vocalizing everyone else's nods. "I need a good night out for once, and we can't leave you or Aelita alone. What's-his-name asked her to be the DJ."

"He did? He never mentioned anything about that to me..." He turned to face his other friends. "Still, that's great, Aelita! Are you going to do it?"

"What? Oh- yes!" Aelita didn't seem ready to be talked to, but smiled nonetheless. "There's no reason I can't." She directed this last line at Jeremie. Jeremie's return smile was more of a grimace.

"Great, then," Ulrich said, absentmindedly clapping once. "Yeah."

There was an awkward silence. Yumi pulled out her phone, and looked at the clock. Her eyes widened a bit. "Well," she said, "He was right about time. If I'm going to get my homework done _and _get ready, I should probably get going." She got up off the wall, and turned to Ulrich, smiling again. "I'll...see you there."

"Uh..." Ulrich blushed, but tried not to look away from her in embarrassment. "Yeah. Yeah...uh, nice."

"Heh." She hesitated, as if she wanted to do something else, but it came to nothing; she ran away from the building toward the distant gate, disappearing into the streets. No one said a word to hold her back. As soon as she was out of sight, Aelita disconnected herself from Jeremie, much to his surprise, and looked at her own phone.

"I should probably do the same, with everything Mr. Smith gave us tonight. I'm going to head back to my room." She looked over at Jeremie, as if expecting him to invite himself along. He didn't say anything- he only gave her the same sort of look. She sighed, and shook her head. "Look, if you really don't want me to go-"

"No," Jeremie cut in, now sounding frightened. "If you want to, go ahead. I don't mind. It's great." He paused. "Don't let me stop you."

Aelita looked at him for a while, face unreadable. Then, she leaned over, kissed him on the forehead, and walked away toward the dormitory building. Jeremie hit his hand against his forehead, and shook his head, as if in regret.

Odd couldn't stand the uncomfortable silence any longer. "So," he said to Milly, "You have any girly stuff you need to do?"

"Not really," Milly replied, looking up at him. "You have any manly stuff you need to do?"

The rest of what might have been a conversation dissolved into giggles. Ulrich turned to Jeremie, wearing an exasperated look. "You know what? I really don't want to see this anymore."

"Me neither," Jeremie said behind his hand.

"Okay." Ulrich took a long look at the gym. "Um, here." He fished into his bag, took out his dorm key, and held it out so Jeremie could see it. "Could you watch my room for me? I already have Kiwi doing nasty things in there."

Jeremie took the keys without fanfare. "Where are you going?"

"I...need to think about some things." Jeremie knew exactly what this meant; he didn't inquire further. With one last look at Odd and Milly, he took off for the gym, disappearing from Jeremie's sight just as Aelita and Yumi had.

* * *

It was not a normal afternoon.

Yumi had ended up spending almost an hour lying on her bed, wrapped in a towel after her bath, staring at the ceiling. Something was wrong, and she couldn't get up until she'd found out what it was, and banished it from her mind. She wouldn't allow herself to be unhappy.

The party wasn't the problem at all. In fact, she was a lot more excited for it than she'd let on. Amazingly, considering it was a Wednesday night, her parents hadn't minded her attending. Perhaps a week of perfect behavior had earned her their trust. She liked to think that. Hiroki had been indignant, of course, but this wasn't his crowd. Or his business. After two and a half years at the beck and call of the responsibility of heroism, this carefree night was nothing short of a miracle.

She soon found her mind drifting toward Ulrich. After years of associating him with fear and tension, she was surprised to find that the thought of him made her feel more secure than she'd felt in a long time. She was thankful to him for understanding exactly what she needed. Her mind wandered to a future where she would be courageous and confident. A future where she would make a connection with him. A future she could no longer delay.

Another figure showed up at the corners of her imagination, unbidden, bringing with him an assortment of poisonous thoughts. _You swear to keep the secret?_ she'd said, and _I swear_, he'd there was a body, both his and not his, too far gone to be recognized anymore. And a face, contorted with pain and confusion, screaming words she could no longer remember. And then silence, cold silence.

Her mind hurled questions at the figure, frustrated and indignant. _Why do you have to keep that look on your face? What's wrong with you? Why are you following me? I know you're lying to me, so what do you want to say? But then again, _she interrupted herself,_ do I want to hear you anymore?_

A rustling noise from outside made Yumi sit upright, eyes wide. Grabbing hold of her towel, she ran to her window and looked out. "Hello?"

No one answered her, because no one was there. The noise had been the cherry tree outside her window scraping against the side of her house. She sighed, and moved away from the window again.

It was all so stupid, she decided, as she sat back down. She examined the outfit lying next to her. Sleeveless sweater, short skirt, striped stockings. She hadn't worn it in almost two years. Despite herself, she laughed. Nothing was going to hurt her here. She had no reason to escape to virtual worlds anymore, not when something so wonderful as reality was waiting for her tonight.

_

* * *

Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. _

No one had any reason to be near the soccer field when it wasn't a game day; the bleachers were empty, the field was even and smooth, and sounds were muted and distant. The _bonk_ of the ball against Ulrich's foot was the only thing that rang in his ears. He wanted it to be the only thing on his mind. No thoughts, no fears, just a steady noise, him and a soccer ball, alone in a field.

Too late, Jim had said. Missed the boat, finito, goodbye. Everything that had been normal to him before had moved on without him. He wanted to be excited for the party, but couldn't quite grasp the feeling. He wanted it to be something like what he had. He drove the more unpleasant implications of this mindset away, and focused only on the good points. The excitement, the adventure, the victory. The light at the end of the tunnel that made everything okay. The feeling of self-worth he could never get from anything else.

_I bet Yumi's not going on like this_, he thought, trying to distract himself from the ache forming in his knee. _It's like she said, why the hell would I want any of it back? That's what it was. It was hell. So this should be heaven, right? But things aren't all right at all._

The ball bounced the wrong way, and landed behind him. He turned, intending to pick it back up, but froze midway. Sissi was sitting on the bottom stair of the bleachers, looking somewhat windswept. She was holding her chin in her hands, and gazing lovingly at him.

"Practicing for something?" she said after a few seconds. Ulrich didn't reply. He got the ball, turned away, and got back to work. _Bonk. Bonk. Bonk._

"You can't get too sweaty," he heard Sissi go on behind him. "Don't you know about Alex Pepin's party tonight? It's all anyone's talking about. I mean, from what I've overheard. No one bothered to fill me in personally..." _Bonk. Bonk. Bonk._ He didn't answer.

"You can't just ignore your friends," she went on. "And I know you can hear me, Ulrich _sweetheart_."

_Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. _"Well, alright. Maybe you want to be alone. You do that sometimes, I know that now." She spoke of it delicately, like it was a disease. "And I'll give you your space, because that's what a good friend does. See? I'm leaving now. I'm trying to be good to you. I'm_ trying_."

_Bonk. Bonk. Bonk._

_

* * *

I have a girl's head in my lap, I have a girl's head in my lap._

Odd was never one to think deep thoughts. Milly's head was indeed in his lap; the two of them were sitting on a park bench, or rather, Odd was sitting on it and Milly was lying across it. Nothing else was on his mind, and nothing else had to be.

"Hey, Odd." Odd shook his head, and looked down at his girlfriend. She was pointing toward another bench, where a group of girls were talking. "Isn't that the girl that read your text in English class today?"

"Huh?" Odd squinted at the group. "Yeah, yeah it is. That one, with the hair. I dated her two months ago," he added on, because he knew she wouldn't freak out. "Why? Were you...planning something?"

"Odd, that'd be_ mean_," she retorted, batting at his face. "But, of course..." She grinned up at him. "If you did want me to dig up some dirt on her...I wouldn't be_ that_ conflicted about it."

Milly's voice jumped up an octave, as if the thought of shaming this girl filled her with the utmost excitement. Odd felt a strange surge in his body, like adrenaline, but with a malevolent sort of spark. Did he want this? Of course he did. This girl had destroyed his reputation, and he wanted payback.

But those serious thoughts he wanted to block out were coming back again, inspiring common sense where common sense should not tread. _Is this what I get my thrills from now?, _he found himself thinking.

_Duh, _he thought right back_. _Helooked down, smiled, and gave Milly the thumbs up.

Milly smiled right back, and giggled a bit. "I'll see what I can do..." She looked back in that direction, but not at the girls. "Look at the sunset. It's so pretty...with the clouds and all."

"Oh, uh...yeah." Odd looked up, just to please her, but found himself struck as well. He smiled. "It almost looks like the world's about to end."

* * *

"Ruff! Ruff ruff!"

"Shut up," Jeremie mumbled. He reached into the bag on one of the desks, which was full of dog treats, and tossed one at Kiwi. The little dog chased it halfway across the room before he settled in a corner, gnawing noisily. Jeremie wasn't too quiet himself. As soon as that was done with, he flung himself onto Odd's bed, making the springs creak loudly.

His thoughts were like a train wreck, one crashing into the next. _I should've gone to help her. I can't face her now. She shouldn't be doing this. She needs to do this. I can't hold her back. I'm holding her back. I shouldn't be so possessive. She needs to be safe. She doesn't need my protection. I don't need to protect her anymore. She doesn't need me. I couldn't help her. I couldn't save her father._

He shook his head, and looked down at the floor, hoping to distract himself. His backpack lay across the room, turned on its side. His laptop spilled out of an open flap. Jeremie remembered, suddenly, that he hadn't used it for anything besides homework in a week. He smiled at it. It was once so easy, he thought, to pour every trouble he had into that machine. To open up a simple program, wait for a connection, and know that within minutes, a sweet, smiling, horribly endangered artificial intelligence would come to greet him.

_Aelita, you have to help me,_ he appealed to the illusion. _I'm losing everything I won in the war._

And Aelita would laugh at him, tossing her elf-eared head back and forth. _Jeremie, I don't understand, _she would say, in an angel's voice marred by laptop speakers. _What have you lost? You've got your friends, they'll never leave you. And I'll never leave you. Once you've finished the materialization program, I can be closer to you than ever._

_But that's just not the way things happen, Aelita. People can't stay attached to one thing forever. I need to know what to do, Aelita. I want to make things perfect for us, like they were supposed to be. _

And he looked into the illusion's eyes, hoping to see something familiar, but was surprised to see far less life in her face than he thought he could always find.

* * *

Aelita took a deep breath and looked into the camera on her computer.

Not bad, if she said so herself. She wasn't wearing nearly as much makeup as she had the night of her official performance, but it didn't make much of a difference. She was still beautiful. A superstar, if she could go that far.

She walked over to her stack of CDs, and leafed through them. Several of them were her own mixes, but some she could easily play with on the spot. She picked one at random and slid it into the computer. The familiar notes of a Subdigitals remix filled the room and drifted into the hallway through the open door. The music did little to steady her nerves, but she let it play for the small effect it had. She packed the rest of the CDs into a bag, and tossed the bag onto her bed.

It landed right on top of Mr. Pück. Aelita flinched in horror, as if she had hit a living person. She ran to her bed and tossed the bag aside. Carefully, she picked up the small doll. It was unharmed, if slightly squished, and still smiling. Its expression lifted her mood slightly; smiling in turn, she stroked its face. Her other hand brushed against the tear in its side.

"_We will be together, forever."_

Aelita gasped, and held the doll tight against her heart. It was no use; the voice still rang in her ears, fresh and clear as the day she had heard it. She sat down on her bed, holding back the beginnings of tears. _Don't_, she told herself. _You don't want to look like this tonight...he'd be happy that you're doing this, wouldn't want you to get upset... _But the excuses were hollow, empty. They only barely blocked the wordless indignation seeping through the cracks.

There was a light shuffling noise in the doorway. Aelita's head jerked up. "Daddy?" she gasped.

When she saw who it was, she gave a small yelp, and nearly fell off the bed. She didn't know how long William had been there, but he didn't show any sign of having heard or seen her. He was leaning against the doorframe, staring out her window. Even then, his eyes appeared glazed, as though he wasn't looking at anything at all. Aelita watched him blankly. "Uh..."

"I didn't know you listened to the Subsonics," he interrupted. "Did you make this?"

Aelita blinked, confused. "Subsonics? Oh, no, they're called the Subdigitals now...copyright, I think..." She fully expected William to be confused, or shocked, or some other widly expressive emotion to match hers. He looked about ready to be, but just smiled and shook his head. Knowing he wouldn't reply, she went on. "There's an artist I found on the Internet who remixes all of their songs. This...he's very good."

"I know." He closed his eyes. "You still make music? You know, cause the stuff at the techno party thing...that was good. Really good."

"Oh! Uh..." Aelita shook her head. The conversation was going nowhere. "Look," she said, standing up. "You can't just be on the girls' floor to listen to music."

"Maybe I am. Maybe I heard something amazing. Something I'd never heard before." For the first time, William looked her right in the eye. His expression was ambiguous, something between anger and curiosity, as if he didn't know which one to show himself. Then, without warning, he looked down at Mr. Pück. He eyed the tear, but said nothing.

"Oh..." Aelita blushed, and loosened her hold on Mr. Pück. "This is nothing..." William arched an eyebrow. The deception hurt. She shook her head. "No, it isn't. It was...a present from my father," she said, very quickly, as if shocked she'd said it at all.

William's expression definitely hardened; he looked at Mr. Pück, and then at Aelita, with something like distaste. Aelita looked to the side, to escape his stare, before speaking. "Look, I need to, um, get ready to go somewhere, so if you could..."

"You're sick of it, too."

Aelita froze. Though William's face hadn't changed, his expression took on an entirely different meaning. "S-sick of what?"

"Of everything." He looked like he was exerting a colossal effort to keep eye contact. "Sick of silence. Sick of living like a ghost." He took a step forward. "Aren't you?" Aelita took a step back, and didn't respond. William's eyebrows knit together. "Let me put this another way. Can you tell me why no one is talking about Lyoko?"

Mr. Pück was in great danger of tearing in half. "I..." Aelita racked her brain for an answer, and came up with one she hoped would satisfy them. "It's over," she mumbled. "XANA's gone. The supercomputer's buried. It's not a part of our lives anymore. We can't just dwell on the past if we're ever going to mo-"

"You're lying." He looked at Mr. Pück again. His eyes widened, as if he could see something in the doll's blankness. "You can't be telling the truth while you're still holding him."

Aelita could hardly believe what she was hearing- or what she was thinking. "I-" She redirected the subject. "I thought you thought...all the books, and...Yumi said you never..."

"Yumi-" he began, sounding angry, but paused, and took a deep breath. "Yumi believes everything you just told me. I think she always did. And I've tried to believe her, for more than a week now. But now...I've realized she can't understand." He looked up at Aelita. "It was nothing but a thrilling game to them, but the supercomputer's hurt us, Aelita. XANA killed your father and destroyed my dignity. We've been wronged. That's just not something we can erase."

For a moment, there was silence. Aelita didn't seem to know what to do. Then, she began mumbling again. "And what are you going to do about it?" Her face contorted in anger. "What are you trying to get me to do? That's my point, _we can't do anything_. If it's revenge you want, then that's done already. My father died to destroy XANA, so we didn't have to fight him anymore. He's dead. He wanted to die. He..." Her hands were trembling. Mr. Pück slipped out of her grasp and fell to the floor.

William looked down at the doll, and then back at Aelita. "Don't you think I know that? It just pisses me off that all of you just think you can ignore-"

"Ignore what? You? And what's all this about XANA destroying your dignity?" Aelita scrambled up toward William, until she was just inches from his face. "Don't even try to convince me some of this isn't your fault! I was there when you were strutting around, acting like you knew what you were doing...'Oh, the Schyphozoa doesn't look too dangerous,'" she said in a singsong voice, "'It must be afraid of me. I don't care, I'm just gonna go and act like a big dumb hero!'"

"That's not what I said," William muttered. His hands were trembling, and sweat was forming on his forehead. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was doing..."

"Don't make excuses," Aelita went on. A tear was dripping down her face; she pretended not to notice. "You brought it on yourself-" Her voice cracked- "and made things harder for everyone else-" the tear rolled down her face- "and if you'd just listened to Jeremie-" she choked on her voice- "We could've...he could've...I could've..."

She sank to her knees. She held her hands up over her face. "He's gone," she muttered behind them. "He's gone and I can't do anything. And I hate it. _I hate it so much_." She sobbed into her hands. William didn't seem to know what to do; he twitched his arm, as if to comfort her, but thought far better of it.

"Look, I didn't..." He paused for a moment. "Do you want me to get Jeremie?" Aelita shook her head. "Do you want me to leave?" Aelita nodded. She could hear a shuffling noise as William turned around. "You'd better calm down, then. I don't think you want anyone to see you've been crying."

She heard hinges being moved. "Good luck tonight, by the way. I won't be there. I wasn't invited." He closed the door behind him and left her alone.

* * *

Twilight came with a burst of heavenly fire, streaking clouds pink and red as the sky grew dark. It was like a migration signal for Kadic Academy; students of all shapes, sizes, and states of dress were sneaking over and under the gate, hopping fences, taking shortcuts. Night would be upon them soon, that time where the day didn't tread and didn't matter. In the shroud of the darkness, they could do what they wanted.

Sissi Delmas was standing away from the mob, behind a tree, so as not to be seen by the night guard - or any of the others at all, considering she was wearing her party dress. Every viable escape route was taken; there was no way she could get out unnoticed. But this was no matter to her. She was used to being patient.

One eyebrow soared way into the air as someone tore out of the front door of the dorms - not snuck, but tore, as though he didn't care or see who saw him. William, who was not dressed in any way that fit a party, ran right across the Quad, past her, and toward the forest. _The forest_. Sissi smirked. William wasn't anyone she cared about; he was fair game. She ran in his direction, and called out after him. "Hey!" He ignored her. "Hey, DUNBAR!"

William skidded to a halt; Sissi took the time to catch up. He turned around, fixing her with the steeliest look she had ever seen on his face - which was really something to speak of. Sissi grinned at him still, showing no fear. "Where do you think you're going at this hour?"

William's expression didn't change. "None of your business," he said. "Leave me alone."

"Because if you're going to Alex's party, all the good exits are that way." She pointed in the opposite direction. "But you can't _really_ be going dressed like that. And after hearing some _interesting _conversations at dinner, I was under the impression you weren't invited. How crafty." She picked at her manicured nails. "Of course, I shouldn't be going either, but...there's more of a thrill in gate-crashing then not going at all. I guess your clothes are in your bag, then?"

"I'm not going to the party," William mumbled back, taking some steps away. "I told you, leave me alone. I have business to do."

"Business? Better than all-night mayhem?" She stepped closer. "If that's the case, maybe I should join you."

"No."

"Honestly, William, you don't have to act like such a creep. It doesn't do you any good." She shook her head. "Just tell me. I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"I can't-"

"SISSI!" Sissi screamed and jumped backward, bumping right into William. William, on seeing who it was, had to fight back a sudden, tasteless desire to laugh. Herb and Nicolas were standing side by side in front of Sissi, each wearing terrible party clothes and identical goofy grins. Sissi, on the other hand, looked mortified.

"We're all ready to go!" Herb said, looking far more excited than any of them.

"Do you know how we're going to get in yet?" Nicolas continued. "I told Herb we could disguise ourselves as kegs, but he says that's-"

"Shut up!" Sissi screeched. "I've told you a thousand times, I never want to see either of you around me again! I don't need you anymore, you hear?"

Their faces fell. Herb, in particular, looked furious- his pimples stood out more clearly than ever before. "Real friends, huh? So where are these real friends? Why aren't they here with you?"

"Because they don't need to suck up to me. And this party isn't your crowd anyway. Look at you, all..._you_. They won't even let you sneak in!"

"Uh, Sissi?" Nicolas appeared to have ignored everything she just said. He pointed behind her. "Weren't you just talking to William Dunbar a second ago?" He entirely failed to notice Herb turning beet red with rage at the sound of William's name.

"Yes, I- HUH?" She turned around. Predictably, William was no longer there. Her eyes widened. "William? WILLIAM? Oh, forget it. If he wants to be a creeper, so be it." She stomped off, past her ex-friends. "If you really want to go, you'll have to work for it. I don't have to help you anymore."

Somewhat more forlorn than they had been, Herb and Nicolas shuffled off after their idol, making slow, careful steps as not to be heard. None of them, and indeed no one at all, heard the metallic _clang _from the woods as a manhole cover was thrown open, or the later, second _clang_ as it was put back into place.

* * *

I finished two chapters! Halfway done with this episode! Finally said Lyoko! Woot! So, what's William doing going into the sewers? What does Alex have in store for Aelita? What does Aelita have in store for Aelita? Will Sissi ever lose her faithful Labrador retrievers? Tune in next time, when Five returns! Eventually!

- Carth


	3. Paradise Lost, Part 3

Chapter 3...we're getting there, guys, I mean it! I'd really like to thank the people that are reviewing, faving, and alerting this- you guys are awesome in a can. If awesome was sold in a can, it would have your faces plastered all over it. I wish we could still reply to reviews in-fic so I could give all of you personalized hugs…though **sweetsummerrain** gets special giggles for being the fifth, or "Fifth" person to review this fic xD

So let's get back to kids running around. ^___^ **This is another instance where this copy of the chapter is not beta'd. Beta'd will be loadsanloadsbetter.**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Code: Lyoko. But acting like I own it gives me a good healthy dose of ego inflation. I also do not own any of the show excerpts in this chapter, including lyrics.

(Adaptation Notes: The drinking age in France is 16. [] denotes another language being spoken. I've fixed Chapter 1 to include those.)

* * *

Paradise Lost**  
Part Three**

_March 21, 2007  
8:09 PM  
29 Mouscadet Street_

The Pepin homestead was larger than many of the other houses in the area, and a good acre away from them on all sides. The windows flashed as if they were on fire, except where the silhouettes of partygoers interrupted the display. Several more spilled out of the front door, talking and laughing and sipping drinks from plastic cups. The party hadn't quite gotten into swing, but it was well on its way.

Ulrich and Odd were waiting near the front gate, looking impatient. Ulrich felt impressive in a green polo shirt and khakis, but he kept brushing away imaginary dust in a nervous sort of way. Odd's white leisure suit was brighter than the whole house, and it was unclear whether his cologne or his pheromones smelled worse. He was looking at his cell phone, lips pursed. It vibrated in his hands.

"Oh! Text from Milly! She's on Martin Street…" He put the phone away, licked his finger, and ran it up his hair. "How do I look?"

"Dreadful." Ulrich wasn't looking. He saw some commotion out of the corner of his unfocused eye up the road, and turned his head to see more clearly. "Someone's coming…wait, is that Aelita? I thought she was inside already."

Odd hopped up on the fence to see what his friend saw. It was indeed Aelita, running up the street about as fast as she could, as if trying to escape something. She had a large bag slung over her shoulder, which was swinging to and fro as she ran, eyes downcast. Both of the boys ran to the gate, arms waving. "Aelita!" Odd called.

Aelita stopped where she was, and looked right at them. "Ulrich! Odd!" She smiled a pained, nervous sort of smile, and completed the run to them. She placed her bag down, and greeted each of them with a quick hug. "I'm so happy to see you…"

"Glad you could make it too, Princess. Better late than never," Odd replied, giving her a thumbs up. "Hey, this idiot wouldn't be honest. How do I look? Is it too much? Too little?"

"You look like you just stepped out of 'Paco The King of Disco'," Aelita said, giggling a little too hard. She looked around the dark front yard. "Wait, where's…"

"Jeremie?" Ulrich started, guessing what she was thinking. He shook his head. "Sorry, Aelita. I went to go get him, and he was asleep. I couldn't wake him up. Not like that, I mean, he's just out."

"I left about a million messages on his phone, though, so if he doesn't get his bum over here, he's…really tired," Odd said, tactfully. Aelita's smile didn't falter- it only looked a touch more strained. "But, don't worry about it! The weather's cool, the party's hot, and you're going to rock the house!" He grinned up at her.

"Yes. Yes…yes I am." She giggled again, as if shocked at her own words.

"Of course you are!" a new voice interrupted. The three of them turned to the gate. Milly was there, catching her breath, holding her camcorder in one hand and fixing her shirt with the other. Tamiya was nowhere to be seen.

"Milly!" Odd ran to her and pulled her into a kiss, but worked quickly so he could get a better look at her outfit (purple tube top, orange suspenders, yellow short shorts). "You look amazing," he went on, speaking to her bosoms.

"Oh, thank you! You look…interesting." She raised her eyebrows, grinned affectionately, and gave him another kiss on the cheek. This accomplished, she turned to Aelita. "And you too, Aelita! That's the outfit from the Subdigitals concert, isn't it?" None of them had to predict what Milly would do next- she held the camcorder up to Aelita. "And this'll be your third public performance, right? How does it feel to be in demand? Do you plan to play any other venues?"

"Um…" Aelita grimaced, and looked to the side. "I don't really want to answer any questions right now, Milly. Maybe after the party, so you can get a better perspective."

"Oh, that's a great idea! I'll be sure to give you credit for it." She put the camcorder away, and turned back to Odd. "So…you wanna go?"

"Uh, hold on…" Odd looked back at his friend. "Hey, Ulrich, Milly and I are going in. You're alright waiting for Yumi _alone_, right?" He winked at him.

"Sure, do whatever," Ulrich said, waving them off. "I'll be in soon."

"I should go with you," Aelita said, very quickly. "I'm sure Alex is-"

"-waiting patiently for his DJ?" another new voice finished. While everyone had been focused on Milly, Alex Pepin had left his house, come down the driveway, and positioned himself behind Aelita. His ironed white shirt, black skinny jeans, newly-slicked hair, and confident expression proved a classy contrast to the mayhem behind him. He twirled a bone-dry champagne glass in his right hand, giving him an edgy appearance without any edge to fall from.

He attracted attention like honey attracts flies; every response to his presence was positive. Aelita's smile relaxed a little. Odd clapped and gave a low whistle. Milly pulled her camera out again and aimed it at his face _("This is amazing, Alexandre! You're probably one of the few people in the whole world that can pull off a party like this on a Wednesday night. What's your secret?"). _Ulrich was especially brave; he walked right up to him, pulling his attention in another direction.

"Hey, Alex," he began, in a very familiar tone. "This looks great! I haven't been inside yet or anything, but from the looks of it, you've pulled out all the stops. Everyone's going to have a great time." He laughed, and held up his fist. "Really, I can't thank you enough for letting us all come."

"What? Oh…" Alex ignored Odd and Milly, but completed Ulrich's brofist somewhat unenthusiastically. "No problem, no problem at all. I hope you like it, yes, yes…" Without skipping a beat, he turned right to Aelita, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Aelita! You're…" He looked her up and down, and then up again. "Fashionably late."

"Oh. Ah, sorry." Aelita said. She looked legitimately concerned; more legitimate than she'd looked the entire evening. "I just…"

"You don't have to make excuses. Really, I'm overjoyed you showed up at all. Is Jeremie here?" he went on in a suddenly serious tone.

"Sorry, Alex, he couldn't make it," Ulrich interrupted, having overheard that snatch of the conversation. "Last I saw him, he was asleep."

"_Really_? Well, that's too bad," Alex said, sounding like all his dreams had come true. He didn't even try to restrain himself anymore; before Aelita knew it, Alex had wrapped his free arm around her, ushering her up the drive. "We've set up a station for you in the laundry room," he went on. "I know it doesn't sound glamorous, but it has the widest range soundwise, and everyone can see you. And that's the optimal thing, for everyone to see you."

"I guess that's part of the performance," Aelita said. It was the last thing Ulrich, Odd, and Milly heard before the two were out of earshot. Before they disappeared, Ulrich got a good look at Aelita's face, which confirmed what he thought he'd seen from the beginning.

"Did you see her face?" Ulrich said, very seriously.

"Of course," Odd said, sounding confused. "She's excited like Jim at a sumo convention. Why?"

"Maybe," Ulrich said, "But her eyes were red-rimmed, and her face was all blotchy…" He looked very worried. "Do you think something happened between her and Jeremie?"

"Ulrich…" Odd shook his head. "Don't you think if Aelita was having any trouble, especially with Einstein, she'd tell us right away? And look at her, she's happy as a clam. It was probably just the light." He put his arm around Milly, who looked like she was trying very hard to hide her excitement at the prospect of drama. "Really, we're going in now."

"Okay…I'll keep waiting." Slightly defeated, Ulrich turned back to look at the road. He heard Odd and Milly's chatter blend into the cacophony of the home behind him. With nothing tall and dark-haired to look at, his mind was stagnant. With all he'd ever had to think about, he'd almost forgotten what it was like not to think of anything at all.

"Don't tell me I'm the only one that showed up." His heart skipped a beat as he started thinking again, and then a few more when he saw why. Yumi had just walked in the gate, completely alone, and was now leaning against the fence. It took him a second to recognize her outfit. Sleeveless sweater, short skirt, striped stockings. He tried to look like he wasn't ogling.

"Yumi!" he interjected, in a manner of greeting. "No, no, everyone else went inside…Odd and Milly are still sickening, but I think Aelita should be ready to go in a few minutes." He tugged at his collar.

"She really is going to DJ, then?" she replied, looking impressed. Just as she finished, she was proven right as a chord cut the air. Before this, no music had been playing; all the atmosphere had come from partygoers' chatter. As the first song began- an active number that might have been a much improved Aerosmooth remix- a cheer rose up that almost drowned out the music entirely. Within seconds, everyone that had been standing and talking was flailing and flying, lost in the dance.

"Apparently," Ulrich said loudly, trying to make himself heard over all the new noise. His throat clenched; he couldn't think of anything else to say. He couldn't possibly notice that Yumi caught in the same sort of tension, and that her foot-tapping was not an idle habit, but a nervous one. Against his better judgment, he found his eyes wandering back to her outfit. Vaguely, he remembered girls liked to be complimented on their clothes. "Uh…I remember that outfit," he started, a bit awkwardly. "You wore it to Prom last year."

"Oh?" Yumi seemed shocked that a conversation had actually started. "Yeah…yeah, I did. Giant chemical teddy bear."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." She rounded on him suddenly, and grabbed his hand. "Well? The night's not getting any longer, and neither of us came here to stand around." Her smile was like a nuclear bomb on his heart. "Are we going in?"

Ulrich hoped Yumi couldn't see him blush in the semidarkness. He nodded his head, and smiled as confidently as she did. "I thought you'd never ask." They pulled each other up the drive and into the crowd.

Only the faintest vestiges of the evening's firey sunlight remained to tickle the horizon. Within half an hour, the setting sun would dissolve them completely, leaving Alex Pepin's house as the brightest source of light for miles.

* * *

There were no skateboards or scooters on the sewer wall anymore. William wasn't sure if the others had removed them after their last trip through the tunnel or if they had been stolen since the last time he saw them. He wouldn't know those kinds of things. Either way, he hadn't been able to make use of them, so now he was running, running as fast as he could. If he remembered right, he was about halfway to the factory. But he might not have been right. He didn't have enough experience to know.

He wasn't sure why he was going to the factory, or, metaphorically, where he was going at all. Aelita had been right in the plainest way; there was nothing left in the factory for them but a shell of a computer, a useless virtual universe. Now that the threat was gone, so was the secret. Of course, she and the others had been prepared to throw its existence away as soon as they could. He hadn't quite adopted that mindset yet. He'd tried, because they had, but his mind was too mixed up for him to forget.

He didn't entirely understand what had happened to him, as the others had been rather vague in explaining things. Jeremie had mentioned that William had been "taken" and "imprisoned" by XANA, which was bad enough, but he could have sworn he had heard the word "slave" come up in many an overheard conversation. And he didn't remember anything about the five months he had missed himself, so his own memory was of no help. From what he could piece together, the Schyphozoa had turned him off, so to speak, and shut him away in some prison of XANA's, necessitating a difficult rescue on the part of his teammates. This, really, was the worst his ego had ever been bruised. He had been inflated with outlandish powers and promises of heroism, and then, with just one half-mistake, he had been shunted into the position of the damsel in distress and stripped of all respectability, in and out of Lyoko. He wasn't a Lyoko Warrior; he had never truly felt like one.

He reached the sewer's end, and climbed the ladder to the surface, breaking through to the fire-streaked sunset. He was wrong to think he'd find any sympathy with Aelita, he thought. Sure, she had connections to the computer through her father, but now that that father was gone, however tragic the event, things were over and complete for her. She had never been imprisoned by XANA, she couldn't relate to him. And yet, the image of her sobbing on the bedroom floor couldn't get out of his mind. _"He's gone and I can't do anything. And I hate it. I hate it so much." _

Staring at the water as he ran across the bridge, Aelita twisted herself into Yumi. Yumi, the only one he had been trying to please with placidity and acceptance. _"Of course they know how dangerous it is, but they're just too nostalgic," _she had told him the day after XANA died._ "I think life without Lyoko is going to be different, but okay." _He loved her, but he disagreed with her, but he still loved her. She was so determined to distance herself from her past with Lyoko, he couldn't bear to remind her of it at all, or let her think he was weak. So, for the past week, he had acted like he was in perfect agreement with her, and buried himself in books so he wouldn't be tempted to speak. But, as he had just realized, just because he wanted to put up one front for her didn't mean he needed to put up the same front with himself. She needed to live in her reality, and he needed to live in his with the help of what she had left behind.

The ropes had thankfully not been cut. William grabbed one and swung down the drop, as Yumi had shown him on his first night. To his mild surprise, the factory looked no different; it was in the same state of abandonment as usual. The elevator was gone; William assumed it had been sent to the bottom of the shaft, and he didn't know the code to get it back up. Unfazed, he walked back to the boiler area, where he knew there was a staircase down to the supercomputer. He found it easily, opened the cover, and climbed down.

He didn't look away from the ladder when he entered the interface room, and kept his eyes fixed on the wall as he moved the cover to the next ladder. It was unnaturally dark; the entire room felt dead. He didn't have any reason to look at the interface; it didn't mean anything to him yet, that much he knew. The same darkness met him at the bottom of the second shaft, but he didn't see any similar cover under his feet. Hopeful, he looked around. It was clearly the scanner room, only dimly lit by ceiling lamps overhead. The scanners were closed, as they should be. This room too felt dead; there was no hum of activity in the giant wires that had once accomplished the impossible.

An unfamiliar lump in the middle of the scanners caught his eye. He remembered and recognized the hatch, but not the coil of rope tied to it. He could dimly see a piece of paper stuck to the coil. He ran to the center, feeling faintly dizzy, knelt by the hatch, and tore the note off. He could just barely read it in the semidarkness- _"Emergencies only. 14/3/07 JB."_ He shrugged and tossed the paper aside. With a mighty shove, he pulled the hatch open.

A column of light shot out of the hole, blinding him temporarily. After he stopped seeing spots, he looked down. There were no stairs or handholds, just a direct drop onto a floor emblazoned with the Eye of XANA. As he watched, the plates on which the Eye was painted opened and separated – it was not a floor, but a cover. A tower-like structure rose out of the hole, sending tendrils of coolant smoke over the floor and up the hatch. This, he knew, was what he was looking for.

William threw the rope down the hatch and swung down to the floor, just like he had in the upper factory. He landed right in front of the supercomputer, and got to his feet to look at it. Like the interface and the scanners, the computer was dark and dull, but the light hitting the metal made it shine and sparkle, as though that alone could bring it back to life. Right in front of him on the dais of the computer was two interlocked panels, marked with the Eye. Next to these panels was a button- the only thing resembling a button on the structure at all. William walked up to the panels and pushed the button. The panels opened up, like a monster flashing its teeth, revealing a small, simple lever. It fell out before him, limp.

He grabbed the handle with both hands, laughing a little. The Lyoko Warriors couldn't tell him anything, but this computer, this evidence, would reveal all their secrets. And then, maybe when he understood what had happened to him, he could have some peace, and stop driving himself insane with incomprehension. It would be better that way. He knew he was right about that.

"I hope I'm not going to regret this in a minute," he muttered jokingly to himself. Without any more hesitation, he pushed the lever up.

* * *

Alex's house was just as nice inside as it was outside, all abstract photography and modern furniture. In fact, it might have been a calm, comfortable place to live if not for the fact that every room was full of students, Kadic or otherwise. They were drunk on adrenaline and who knows what else, and most of them were dancing wildly to the peppy hip-hop number blaring from the laundry room into the living room.

Ulrich and Yumi were dancing as well, or rather trying to. Everyone around them was twisted up with someone else, moving against each other in ways that neither of them was willing to admit they wanted to do with the other. By some unspoken agreement, they instead moved independently in each others' general vicinity, watching each other intently. They ended up bumping into a lot of other people instead. When the song ended in a flurry of cheers, they faced each other, panting heavily, looking flustered but satisfied.

"Still having fun?" Ulrich asked. Yumi shrugged; she hadn't heard him over all the shouted requests for the next song. "Never mind. Hey, Aelita's looking this way." He pointed at Aelita to get his point across. The crowd was too thick around the booth for either of them to get to her, but Yumi gave him a thumbs up, and the two of them waved to her.

Aelita was standing behind a large speaker system and an open laptop, which she was putting a different CD into. She couldn't actually hear anything the kids were shouting at her, but she did see Ulrich and Yumi behind them. She smiled and waved back at them. Yumi mouthed, _Can you leave? _Aelita shrugged, and hit a button on the laptop. The music swelled again- a new, unfamiliar tune- and the chatter died. For some reason, it was now easier for them to hear each other.

"It was worth a shot," Ulrich said. "Do you, uh…want a drink, or something?"

"No, I'm fine." Yumi stretched. "You want to dance anymore?"

"I could use a break." The two of them started for the other end of the room, which had a TV and two couches facing it. The TV was blaring, but no one was watching. Some people were alone, nursing drinks, others chattering in pairs. One couch was full of a couple that didn't go to Kadic making out violently. The other was empty except for one girl, who was staring off into space, looking annoyed. She was ignoring her open drink. Ulrich recognized her bun and dress immediately. _"Sissi?"_

Somehow, Sissi had heard him. She jumped up from the couch, nearly tripping over her own feet, and grabbed her drink. "Ulrich!" She ran over to him, ignoring Yumi and looking triumphant. "So you did come! My, you look…well dressed." She ran a finger over his shirt, just barely touching it. Ulrich cringed. Without removing her finger, she turned to Yumi. "And you too, Yumi. You're rocking the retro look better than I thought you would." Yumi nodded in a disdainful manner of greeting. "Why didn't you tell me Aelita was going to be the DJ?"

"We didn't know," Ulrich said quickly.

"Really? That's a bit strange. Maybe she wanted to keep it a secret. I could've given her some CDs to play, but she seems to be doing just fine for herself without me…" She took a careful swig of her drink. "Want any? You look parched."

"Uh…" Ulrich looked uncertain. Sissi went on without waiting for an answer. "Oh well, more for me, I guess. So, I guess Jeremie's in the crowd around Aelita, right? Wait, never mind. Where's Odd? Off making a scene with his _new girlfriend_?" Her tone was sharp.

"Oh-" Ulrich was thankful for the lighter conversation topic. "Yeah, probably. I haven't seen him since I came in, but I'll bet they're bringing down the house."

"You don't have to bet." Yumi pointed behind them. While they had been talking, the crowd had migrated from the living room to the front hall. Only they, a few younger girls, and the makeout couple remained. Even Aelita was gone. "If I know Odd as well as I do, he's probably right in the middle of that."

The three of them ran to the edge of the crowd. The hall was packed with people- there were even a few that had jumped a blockade on the stairs to watch from above. They had all formed a ring around two people, who were performing the strangest dance any of them had ever seen. Odd was standing in the middle of the circle, swinging Milly around by the arm. She was clearly having the time of her life; she was screaming and twisting as much as she could. As the music swirled and dived, he pulled her back in, twisted her around, and then took her place being swung around. He let out a wild whoop and attempted to slap hands with those closest to him. Then, Milly let go suddenly, and Odd went barreling into the crowd.

Everyone erupted into cheers. Odd got up, ran back to Milly, grabbed both her hands, and threw her under his legs. She went right through, got up, grabbed Odd, and did the same. They came together and began dancing against each other, switching positions every so often. When the song ended, they stopped in place, panting heavily. The crowd went nuts, laughing and cheering in turns. Yumi was dumbfounded. Ulrich was holding back laughter. Sissi, taking a drink, looked duly unimpressed.

The crowd dissolved, and the kids went back to what they had been doing before. Ulrich thought he could see Alex leaning against the stairway, glass in hand, but when he looked again, he was gone. Odd and Milly were the last to emerge, laughing at each other. Odd saw them right away, pointed at them, and said something to Milly. They rushed over. "Guys!" he shouted to Ulrich. "Did you see that? Did you see her?" He pointed at Milly.

"Oh, I saw something, all right," Ulrich said, punching Odd mockingly. Yumi didn't even try to keep a straight face. "They'll remember that one for the rest of the night."

"If I have anything to say about it, they'll remember it for years," Milly said triumphantly. "I just wish Tamiya hadn't been too tired to see it…" Her melancholy vanished when she spotted Sissi. "Wait, what are_ you_ doing here?"

"Enjoying the lax security," Sissi said flatly. She removed her cup from her mouth. "And keep in mind you're only here because of your little squeeze over there-" She pointed at Odd- "-so don't go judging others so quickly."

"Hey!" Odd went up to Sissi and went up on his toes to look her in the eye. "You can't just insult my girlfriend like that!"

"She won't be your girlfriend next week, so what does it matter?" Sissi muttered. She looked down at the livid look on Odd's face, and then up at the ambiguous looks on Ulrich and Yumi's faces. "Alright, alright, I'll be good, I'll lay off. You too have whatever fun you want. What should I care?"

"Exactly, you shouldn't. I can do whatever I want." Odd grinned, and went back to join Milly. He noticed that her eyes had trailed to the makeout couple, who were still at it on the couch. Her expression was unreadable. Odd cringed. "Oh…uh, well, look at that. Sure, that looks fun, but we don't have to do that if you don't…"

Milly cut him off mid-sentence by copying what she'd seen. Odd's eyes appeared to roll back into his head; he was in heaven. The two of them stumbled over to the other couch. Yumi, Ulrich, and Sissi watched for about five seconds before deciding they'd had enough.

"Sickening," Sissi mumbled to herself. "But I guess that's how couples are." Suddenly, she turned to Yumi. "Speaking of that, Yumi, I think I can see that William didn't show up?"

Yumi and Ulrich looked at each other, fireworks going off in their heads. "Did he…tell you he was going to be here?" Yumi began.

"Well…" Sissi threw her empty cup aside. "He was pretty vague, but he _was_ in a hurry. He told _me _he wasn't going, but I can't think of any other reason he'd be going off on his own in the woods. Unless…" She looked up at Yumi and Ulrich, who were trying very hard not to look shocked. "Oh, it's no big deal. He's probably going to go kill squirrels or whatever." She turned around. "I'm gonna get another drink, so I'll see you later. Oh, and if Herb and Nicolas come looking for me, tell them where they can shove it, okay? Thanks, dears." She turned away from them, stumbling slightly on her way out.

"I'm glad I didn't drink that," Ulrich said, looking shaken. "But what she said about William…you don't think…I mean…he…" His throat froze.

"I…" Yumi's teeth were gritted, and she looked worried- but only for a second. Then she whirled around, looking happier than ever. "I'm sure whatever it is it's his own business. Come on, let's go back in. I love this song." Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed his hand and pulled him back into the fray.

* * *

"Diary of Jeremie Belpois, Kadic Academy 7th grade student, October 9th, 2004. A few weeks ago I was hunting for some parts to finish building my miniature robots…"

William watched Jeremie's talking head on the interface screen with rapture. The entire experience, the feeling of sitting in the chair and and actually using the supercomputer from the outside was strange and unreal. But he knew it was real, and because it was real, he had to find out about it. And with a folder called "Diary" sitting right on the interface desktop, that couldn't have been any easier to do.

"December 14, 2005. After the last Return to the Past, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi didn't return from Lyoko. Aelita and I discovered that they were being held inside a bubble on Lyoko, where they were trapped in a virtual replica of Kadic. They're all out and fine now, but it was a very close call. Actually, it might be our closest brush with death yet…" An intriguing story, but it predated him. He'd look at it later. He clicked another.

"February 1, 2006. We just found out the hard way that every time we use a Return to the Past, the supercomputer becomes stronger- and so does XANA. Yesterday, or for the last three days, technically speaking, he seized control of the program and reversed time until he was strong enough to possess a human. Sissi's fine now, thankfully, but XANA seized the opportunity to attempt to steal Aelita's memory again with the Schyphozoa…" William resisted the urge to stop here. This was an old entry; long ago dealt with. But he couldn't get the words _"Sissi's fine now"_ out of his head. He clicked another.

"October 5, 2006. XANA's attacking all the time. We're too busy to think about school. After the prowess he showed in handling today's attack, I suggested we recruit William Dunbar into our group to ease the stress on the rest of us. But Yumi absolutely refuses. I don't know why. I have a feeling their friendship has been rocky lately…but to me, that's not important. What's important is that we do all we can to stop XANA."

William paused again. He'd found what he was looking for- his involvement. He was somewhat lifted by the fact that they had been impressed by him (whatever he'd done) but chilled by Yumi's rejection. Yumi, he realized, was another thing he didn't totally understand. He didn't know why she rejected the people he knew she loved, why she would never open herself up to anyone, why she was so eager to cast Lyoko away. He was more worried than he was angry about her. But his excitement regarding Lyoko was growing. He was getting closer.

He rushed through the next entries. "October 10, 2006. Ulrich and Odd were hit by a-" Click. "October 14, 2006. The computer was-" Click. "October 17, 2006. Ulrich's body hasn't-" Click. "October 20, 2006. Attempts to restore Odd's-" Click. "October 23, 2006." William didn't dare move a muscle.

"Yumi's finally agreed to let William into the group. I don't know what persuaded her, but she's all for it now. Just a few hours ago, we introduced him to Lyoko, and he consented to be scanned into the computer. Tomorrow we're going to teach him some of the basics of fighting. We haven't told him everything about Lyoko yet; just that we need to fight XANA. We'll tell him about the history of what we've been doing, about Aelita and all the attacks and everything, before his training. But for now, I think we've made a good decision. He seems eager to help us, and I think over time things will settle down with Ulrich and Yumi. I see a lot of good things coming from this."

William didn't know what to think anymore- and he hadn't even gotten to his biggest question. He'd had so much potential, they thought he had so much potential, and he'd failed them. As much as he loved to think that this mindset had stayed with them, he had to face the truth someday. His finger hovered over the Enter key as he prepared to watch the next entry.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. _

"Huh?" He started at the noise, which went on and on without any signs of stopping. A window he recognized as a vector map of Lyoko opened itself over Jeremie's face. A short red line connected a point on the map to a data box off to the side. William vaguely remembered that these boxes held life point information, with an Eye of XANA in the corner. But the box had nothing in the corner. It read only one thing- "_????_".

He stared at it, teeth clenched, dumbfounded. The thing didn't go away; it was moving in a sort of rectangle, stopping every so often. It wasn't destroying anything, but William knew it wasn't supposed to be there. He couldn't completely wrap his head around it. If there was something in a dead world like Lyoko, good, bad, or netural…

His first thought was to go in and fight it, but he needed a second person to do the virtualization. His fingers closed around the cell phone in his pocket. _Just turn the computer back off, _a small, still voice in the back of his head told him. _You've only caused them trouble. If it's a threat, they'll think it's your fault. _He shook his head, and pulled the phone out of his pocket. Causing a problem and abandoning it was worse than causing a problem and trying to fix it.

He called Jeremie first, as he figured he was the most capable and rational. The call went to voice mail; he hung up. He didn't want to deal with Ulrich, and halfway through dialing Yumi's number he realized he didn't want to deal with her either. Odd was a good guy who wasn't inclined to freaking out, but he wasn't sure he was confident in his ability to use the supercomputer. He only had one option left.

He dialed Aelita's number, held the phone to his ear, and waited for her to pick up.

* * *

"_L'univers, à portée de nos mains, L'univers, ensemble nous appartient demain__!"_

Aelita ended her remix with a twisted flourish, which was followed by the usual cheer. She smiled and waved at them, and ignored all their shouts as usual. The crowd had thinned slightly in the last hour; some of the dancers had paired up and wandered off. She didn't see any of her friends in the crowd, but this didn't bother her. As far as she could see, she was entertaining them well.

"Excellent work." Aelita turned around, slightly surprised. Alex was leaning against his family's washing machine, smiling placidly at her. His glass was still dry, as it had been all nght.

"Oh, thank you, it's no problem," she shouted back at him. "I hope it's up to what you wanted."

"Mostly." He waved her over. "Here, you've been working for an hour now. Take a break. Put on something longer. I want to talk to you." Aelita nodded. She turned around, set up a playlist, and then walked over to join him at the washing machine. The music was a dull thump in the background; she could actually hear herself talk now.

"Everything looks like a success so far," she began, idly. "At this rate we could keep it going until eleven, if too many people aren't called home. But I guess you must be one of those people that can start Friday's party on Wednesday and pull it off, like Milly said." She didn't notice Alex reach into the washing machine, take out a bottle with a fancy label, and pour the contents into his glass and another one on a shelf. "I wouldn't know. I've never been to a house party myself. My friends usually don't…"

"Thirsty?" Alex offered. He held a glass out to her. The drink was a sparkling off-white. "You must be, after all this time."

"Uh…" Aelita eyed the bottle on top of the washing machine. "I'd love to, but I'm not going to be sixteen for another two years."

"That's not-" Alex stopped and shook his head. "Okay, so you are. I'm sorry, I didn't know that. Silly me, giving wine to someone underage." He put her glass back on the shelf. "Come to think of it, I'm not going to be sixteen for another year either. I don't know what came over me." He put the bottle back in the washing machine, but he didn't empty his glass. Aelita looked at the glass nervously.

"I'll go get sodas from the kitchen," Aelita said, standing up. "I think that would be-"

"So Jeremie didn't show up to see you, did he?" Alex interrupted.

Aelita turned back to face Alex, trying and failing to smile. "No," she said confidently. "I haven't seen or heard from him at all."

"That's too bad." Alex stood up. "Actually, that's terrible. Isn't it terrible, the way he just blew you off without telling you?" He turned and walked toward her, leading her away from the doorway. "You know, I might be having a few more parties this year. Four, maybe five more. I'd be willing to make you the centerpiece of all of them. I could let you have the time of your life, week after week. You'd be the most popular girl at Kadic in no time at all."

"I…" As much as this idea sounded attractive to Aelita, her gut told her that something was wrong. Something had changed about Alex; his eyes had a hungry gleam to them. His cologne wafted into her face, choking her. "I don't-"

"And those friends of yours, they'd always be here with you, I'd make sure of that. Even Jeremie…that is, if you still want him around." He had backed her against a wall. "I know he's your boyfriend or whatever, but let's be honest. If he can't appreciate you, he doesn't deserve you."

"I don't understand what you're trying to tell me." She understood perfectly, but the longer she could keep him talking, the better. She tried to inch away from him.

"I didn't throw this party for nothing, Aelita," he went on, placing a hand on her shoulder. His tone softened; he was trying to seem kinder, but instead sounded pathetic. "Everything I've done tonight I've done for you. You're impressed, aren't you? And Jeremie couldn't do this, could he? No. But I'm different. I know what you want." He put his other hand on her other shoulder, while still holding the wine. The smell nauseated her. "I can give you everything he never could, Aelita. I could make you the star only I know you could be." He began to play with the strap of her shirt. "And all you have to say one little word…"

"Don't touch me!" Aelita screamed. She pulled away from him, upsetting the glass in his hand; it fell to the ground and shattered, spilling wine on the linoleum. His hand was caught in her strap; he was able to pull her back. He pushed his face to hers, incensed.

"Listen to me," Alex said. "I'm giving you the best offer of your life. I've seen you with Jeremie. I saw the way he looked at me. Do you know why he looked at me that way? Because he couldn't stand to see someone that was better than he was. Tell me, Aelita…" He let go of her, and stepped back until he was about a meter away. "I'll let you run away after this, really, but I need to know. What has Jeremie ever done for you? Is there some big secret to why you've been dating him all this time? It can't just be pity."

Images Aelita had no intention of sharing flashed through her mind. They were painful to see in some instances, but she had to let them take over. "You'll never understand what he means to me," she snarled. "If you're trying to persuade me that you love me, you're wrong. I have known love and loved deeper than you can take seriously. You are transparent, and selfish, and psychotic, and if you think that I'm going to stay here another minute-"

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Aelita didn't even ask to be excused; she grabbed the phone and flipped it open. "Hello?" she said, hopefully.

"Aelita?" the wrong voice replied.

"William?" Aelita's eyes widened in fear. She resisted the urge to hang up, even though she felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. Alex, who had been taking deep breaths by the washing machine, mouthed what she had said. The other glass was beside him. It was empty.

There was a long pause on William's end. "Where are you?" Aelita didn't respond. "Are you still at the party?"

"Yes," Aelita said tersely. She looked up at Alex. He wasn't moving; he appeared to be waiting patiently for her to finish.

"Oh. Okay." There was another long pause. Just as Aelita was about to hang up and make a run for it, William spoke again. "I'm at the factory."

Aelita's face froze. "Why?" she squeaked, hoping he couldn't hear her.

"That's not important. There's-" He began talking very fast. "There's something moving on Lyoko. The computer doesn't recognize it, and I can't tell what it is from here. But I can't go to Lyoko without someone to virtualize me, and I can't get to Jeremie. Hello? Aelita?"

The phone fell from Aelita's hand and hit the ground with a clatter. She looked down where it had fallen, and stood for several seconds staring at it. She could hear William calling to her faintly- "Aelita? Aelita?"- but she couldn't process it. She couldn't be angry, or terrified, or shocked, or anything. She could only repeat what she heard in her head. "Aelita? Aelita?"

"Aelita?" Alex had walked a little closer again, acting as though he was still welcome. "What did William say, Aelita?" Aelita looked up to him. Her face turned livid as the hazy look on his made everything rush into her mind at once. She knelt down, scrambled to pick up the phone, and held it to her ear.

"Listen to me," she whispered into the receiver. "When I get outside, I'm going to tell you how to do it yourself. Don't touch anything I don't tell you to touch. If you see anything you don't recognize, _leave it alone_. I'll call the others and meet you there in five minutes."

She put the phone back in her pocket, but didn't hang up. She ran to the speaker area, grabbed her CD case, and ran for the other exit. Alex didn't chase her- everyone would see him if he did- but he did yell after her. "What did William want? Where are you going? You can't leave! You're throwing me away, Aelita, you're throwing this away!"

It was no use. Aelita went through the kitchen and out the back door without listening to a word he'd said. Incensed, Alex threw the last champagne glass to the ground. It smashed to pieces alongside the other one. Then he reached into the washing machine, grabbed a third, and stormed out into the kitchen.

* * *

"Okay, I did what you said, and now this countdown's come up. 'You Kids Get Offa My Lawn'?"

"It's a long story," Aelita said from the receiver. "The bottom line is that's a delayed virtualization into Sector 5. You have a minute and thirteen seconds to get to…which scanner is highlighted?"

"The scanner on the right," William said, looking at a display beneath the rapid countdown.

"You have to get into scanner that's on the right when you leave the elevator. You should be running to it right now."

"Right." William jumped out of the interface seat and ran to the ladder shaft. He put the phone in his pocket and climbed down, emerging in the scanner room. As Aelita had said, the scanner furthest to the right was open. William pulled the phone back to his ear just in time to hear Aelita say "-black wall is supposed to be there. And don't worry about the Sector 5 countdown, we've removed it."

"I'm at the scanner," William said. "I have to go."

"Alright. I'll talk to you when I get to the factory." She hung up. Clearly she didn't want to talk to him anymore.

William put the phone back in his pocket. Knowing he didn't have any time to waste considering his decision, he stepped into the open scanner. It closed just as he got in. As lights flashed and winds blew, William thought of Yumi and the others getting calls from Aelita with the news. _William screwed up again_, he knew she'd say to them, and he knew they'd agree. And then he couldn't think anymore, because his mind went numb.

A second later, he fell onto a bright white light.

"Huh?" He stood up, dazed, and looked around him. He was standing inside a circle inside two other circles of light- a giant, glowing Eye of XANA- on the rotating floor of a tall blue room. He was relieved to recognize all of it- it was the entrance to Lyoko, the first landscape he had seen when he went for the first time.

"Oh my god," he said aloud. He had never, ever expected to enter this place again. Just to make sure the whole scene was real, he looked down at himself. He recognized the white and blue bodysuit he was wearing, and the giant sword he held in his right hand. The sight of the weapon sent a familiar surge of power through him. He tried to hold it back, but he liked it too much.

The floor stopped rotating, and an opening appeared in the wall. William knew what to do from here- he ran through the long blue hallway into the main area of Sector 5. Some seconds later, he stopped dead in his tracks because he had reached the end of it. Where there had once been a large blue room, there was a short dropoff with a giant black structure in front of it. This, William thought, was the "black wall" Aelita had told him about. So much had changed in the months XANA had imprisoned him. Vaguely, he wondered if this was the prison in which he had been kept.

A shining blue lift swung down from the top of the structure, coming to a halt at the platform on which William stood. William looked at the lift uncertainly. He couldn't see anything else out of the ordinary, and this was the only way out. Besides, the thing he had seen had been slow, not fast like this. He stepped on the lift, which swept him up along the black wall.

The entire room darkened around him as the lift slowed. He looked up at it. The room was full of more black structures, which formed a ring around five black stalks, which were slumped against the edges of the ring. The more William looked at it, the more he thought it looked like a prison. "I feel like I've been here before," he said to himself. The lift stopped at the black ring, and William stepped out onto it. There was no way out that he could see.

He grabbed his sword with both hands, held it out in front of him, and walked along the ring, looking back and forth for anything moving. The sword was no lighter than it had been five months ago, and he found himself stumbling as he carried it along.

"[…ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]"

The words were small and quiet, but in a small, quiet place like the prison, William heard them clearly. He whirled around, sword pointed in the direction of the sound. "[Who's there?]" he called back.

Whatever it was, it didn't answer him. There was a flash of red light from behind a stalk several yards away, and then the voice again. "[LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS 017, FEED BEGUN. ANALYZING. ANALYZING.]" It was high, cold, and inhuman, a robot's voice.

"[Seriously, what are you?]" William called again, knowing he wouldn't get any more answer than he did the first time. He ran around the ring toward the stalk, holding his sword out. "[I'm armed!]"

He saw the thing as he rounded the corner, and stopped in his tracks. Whatever it was, it wasn't- it couldn't be- a monster. It didn't look organic, or even three-dimensional. It was a perfectly flat rectangle, about half his height, floating a yard away at his eye level. It appeared to be made of black and white pixels, which were arranged in a random mishmash that made it look like a block of television static. It chanted "[ANALYZING, ANALYZING]" as something from the side that William couldn't see focused a ray of red lightning on the stalk.

William clenched his sword. His first thought was to run it through, but he didn't know what the thing was doing. He considered that this might be one of those times that it was better to make rash decisions about. "[Get away from that!]" he shouted, moving closer and preparing to swing.

"[DATA FEED INTERRUPTED.]" William stopped mid-swing as the thing's red lightning vanished. It rotated to face him. This side was different from the other. Most of it still looked like noise, but in the middle of it, a clear logo was printed. It resembled a stylized eagle on a purple background, with a ring of yellow stars around it.

The thing floated in front of the frozen William for a second before talking again. "[UNKNOWN THREAT,]" it said. "[ANALYZE AND EXTERMINATE.]" A beam of red lightning shot from the logo, aimed right at William's heart.

* * *

"You have six new messages." _Boop. _"Hey, Einstein! We're at the party, and we're waiting for you! Ulrich says you're asleep, but I hope this wakes you up! Bye!" _Boop. _"Einstein, really! Get over here! Don't you want to see Aelita?" _Boop. _"Alright, Jeremie, last warning. You're sure a heavy sleeper. Please wake up! _Boop. _"Really, Jeremie, I mean it!" _Boop. _"Alright, sleep if you want to! I don't want to be you tomorrow when you missed this." _Boop. _Machine sounds. _Boop._

Kiwi pawed at the phone, trying to get it to make more sounds. When this didn't work, he clamped the phone in his mouth, walked across the bed to Jeremie, who was sleeping like a log, and put it on his lip. He barked. Jeremie mumbled a little in his sleep, but didn't move.

The phone buzzed. Jeremie mumbled a little louder. "Hmm, materialization…huh?" His eyes flew open. It took him a half-second to register everything- the room was dark, he was in the wrong room, and there was a phone ringing on his face. "Aack!" He sat up, sending the phone flying into his hands. He juggled it for a second before getting it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Jeremie?" Aelita answered. She sounded very out-of-breath, and he could hear her footsteps in the background.

"AELITA-!" Jeremie was panting about as hard as she was. "Oh, no- what time is it? I'm sorry, Aelita! I fell asleep, and-"

"What? No, Jeremie, it's okay!" A pained tone entered Aelita's voice. "But-"

"No, I'll throw something on and head over, Aelita. I'll be there if you want me to be." He ran out of Ulrich and Odd's room and headed for his own. "I don't care about Alex or anything, I-I just want to see you. It's not over, is it? I mean, that's not why you're calling, right? I'm sorry…" He threw the door of his room open, and headed for his closet. "I'm really, really sorry…"

"Jeremie, calm down!" Aelita barked. Jeremie had his hand on his closet door, but stopped when he heard her. "The party's not over, but I'm not there anymore."

"You're not?" He took a breath to calm himself. "Why?"

"I wish I didn't have to tell you, but…" There was a pause. "William just called me."

"William?" Jeremie swung away from the closet entirely. "Why? What did he say?"

"He's at the factory. He turned the supercomputer back on. He says there's something moving in Sector 5-"

"WHA-WHAT?" Jeremie shouted, unaware of his volume. His brain disengaged- he started babbling. "But- I- he- what happened? What did he do to it?"

"I'm sure he didn't do anything he thought would cause any real trouble. I let him virtualize himself to investigate-"

"You _what_? But what if he-"

"-But I can see the factory now, so he won't be alone for long. I need you to come over here. Right now. I'm going to call Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd, if they can hear me…I would've gotten them from the party, but I'm not going back in there."

Jeremie was overloaded with information and confusion. "But-" was all he could say. "But- but- you- I- what's going on?"

"Jeremie," Aelita said in a tender tone, "I love you. I'll see you at the factory."

She hung up. Jeremie fell down on his knees, staring at his floor. Not completely thinking about what he was doing, he used the hand that wasn't still holding the phone to his ear to punch the floor until it seemed to shake.

_I love you. _Jeremie started to tremble, then to giggle as he turned those words in his head atop everything else. By the time he had gotten up, gone back to Ulrich and Odd's room, grabbed his bag, and headed out of the empty dorm towards the woods, he had gone past laughing, and had stopped at howling like a maniac.

* * *

Alex stormed through the kitchen and across the hall, a murderous look marring his handsome face. No one paid any attention to him, which wasn't surprising, considering only about two-thirds of them had a good idea of what he looked like. He saw them very well, though- he was scanning them all, looking for familiar faces. He found the four he was looking for alone in the hall, leaning against the side of his stairs, talking and laughing about things that went fuzzy in his tipsy mind. Odd and Milly's faces were smeared with pink lipstick, which was probably also all over his white couch. Ulrich and Yumi were teasing them while holding hands. They were far too happy for his liking.

He stormed up to them. He cut off all greetings aimed at him by grabbing Odd by the shoulder and turning him to face him. "Get out of here," he growled right at him, before looking up at the other three. "All of you, leave my house, right now."

All four of them let out exclamations of shock and confusion. Milly looked horrified, while Yumi and Ulrich looked more worried than not. Odd fought against Alex's grip, but he couldn't get away. "Hey, what's all this about?" he shouted, trying to get attention from him and all the people that weren't listening. "What the hell did we do?"

"Your little friend ditched the party," Alex snarled on. "Every second she's been gone, you've been abusing my hospitality. Out of my house. _Out_."

Ulrich, hoping he could safely intervene on Odd's behalf, walked over to Alex and grabbed his arm. "Hey, Alex, calm down," he said, trying to sound concerned when he was really just confused. "You don't have to get all violent about this. Why did Aelita leave? We could try to find out where she went…"

Alex stopped, to let his mind absorb what Ulrich had said. "You want to know something, Stern?" He turned to Ulrich and gave him the evil eye. "I don't give a damn whether you're on the soccer team or not. But the suggestion did butter you up enough for me to get what I wanted. God, you must've looked like such a fool, begging for a spot!" He laughed in Ulrich's livid face, and rounded next on Odd and Milly. "You two. Together you must be a match made in heaven. No one can pity either one of you because their date is insufferably despised." Odd strained to get away, but he still didn't let go as he turned to Yumi. "And to be honest, I've wanted to throw you out all night. Matthias Burel couldn't make it, and he's the only person outside your group who likes you at all…"

"_Don't you dare say anything to her!_" Ulrich had had his fist ready since Alex had insulted him first, and now he let it fly. Alex dodged it, throwing Odd in its path instead. By a miracle, it missed him by inches. A "huh?" was heard from the kitchen, but otherwise no one had noticed the argument yet. Alex let go of Odd and staggered back, grinning madly.

"If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight I'll give you." He held up his champagne glass, swinging it by its base. "But you should count yourselves very lucky I'm giving you the chance to leave without making a scene. Because they'll never believe you. That's the way things are."

All four of them were glaring at him, unsure of what to do. Ulrich held up his fist again, but decided against violence. "You can't throw us out," he said, finally. "We're leaving. Come on, Yumi." He and Yumi walked together out the door. Milly and Odd hesitated for a moment, and then hurried out after them. Alex stared at them out the doorway until they moved out of his sight. Then, neither of them could see what the other did next.

The four of them stopped at the end of the driveway, panting for several reasons. Odd was hugging Milly, apologizing repeatedly in a hushed voice, reassuring her that he had no idea that this was going on. Milly was mumbling something about "Friday's paper". Yumi rounded on Ulrich. It was rare that he had ever seen her angrier than this. "What was that?" she shouted at him, pointing at the doorway. "What the _hell_ was that about?"

"He's insane," Ulrich shot back, just as angry, but not at her- more at himself. "He's completely insane. If Aelita left the way I think she did, then I'm glad she got out as fast as she did." He pulled out his phone. "I'm going to call her, just to find out where she is. Then we'll take you home, and we'll go back to the do-"

To his surprise, the phone vibrated in his hands, and "Call from Aelita" flashed on the screen. He looked down at it, eyebrows raised. "Well, that's one thing taken care of." He held the phone to his ear. "Aelita? Where are you? Are you okay?"

He paused for a minute. Yumi and Odd crowded around him, trying to hear Aelita's replies, but they were too fuzzy to pick up. They could only hear Ulrich's responses. "Good, thank god. Did you tell Jeremie?" Pause. "Well, tell him. And don't worry. The next time I see that son of a-" Pause. "What?" Pause. "What?" Long pause. And then, loudly, "WHAT?"

Yumi jumped. "What's going on?" she yelled at the phone. "What'd he do to you, Aelita? I'll kill him!"

"Yumi, hold on," Ulrich said hurriedly. "What did you say, Aelita?" Pause. "Okay." Pause. "We'll be right there." He hung up, and turned back to Yumi. His expression had changed; he didn't look angry anymore. He just looked shocked again. "Aelita's okay," he said, gravely. "But she's not with Jeremie." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "We need to get rid of Milly."

"What? Why?"

"We'll go together to take her back to the dorm. I'll explain when she can't overhear us." Ulrich looked over to the couple. "Odd, we're all going back to the dorms together to check on Aelita."

"Huh?" Odd looked up from Milly, worried. "Is she alright?"

"Yeah, but I think we should check on her." He turned around. "Come on, we have to hurry."

"Ulrich…" Ulrich stopped two steps later, and looked back at Yumi. She was now as shocked as he had looked. "'When she can't overhear us'…what do you mean by that?"

Ulrich looked at her, but didn't speak. He didn't have to; he knew she'd figured it out. Odd, too- he'd come to join them, and heard every word he'd said. But he turned away before Milly could notice. "Let's go."

They were out the gate and about a block and a half away when a small, shiny car containing a man, a woman, and two young children drove past them. This car was not in any way remarkable until it slowed and stopped at the end of the block. A loud swear rent the air, stopping them all in their tracks. There was a loud screech as the driver floored it up the block, coming to a halt in the Pepins' driveway. Ulrich watched the scene with a mixture of shock and glee, shaking his head disbelievingly. "That's not…that can't be, we can't be…"

"Ha, ha!" Milly shouted, breaking into a smile. "If that's what I think it is-" She turned to Odd. "I have to go back and see this! It's going to be a social event gold mine!" She gave him a swift kiss on the cheek. "Give Aelita my best, okay? Oh, and tell Tamiya I'll be back soon!" She ran back toward the house, pulling out her camcorder as she went to film the scene from a distance. Odd stared after her, looking nervous. Ulrich and Yumi, however, looked very relieved.

"Well, that was easy." Ulrich turned back around. "Come on, guys. Follow me. There's a lot of nasty things I need to tell you…"

* * *

As soon as the couple walked through the door, chaos dissolved into chaos as the wholly adolescent atmosphere shattered. Screams erupted, drinks were tossed away, and windows were made into emergency exits. Children poured out of their house from all sides; a black-haired girl in a torn dress had the nerve to rush past them out the door. The man and woman hardly seemed to notice them- they were looking only for one boy. They ran into the house, dragging two identical nine-year-old girls behind them.

They found Alex in the middle of their laundry room, calmly holding his mother's best champagne glass and standing in the wreckage of two more, staring out at the scene around him with glazed, unfeeling eyes. He didn't seem to respond to his father's shouts. "EXPLAIN this now what the DEVIL HAVE YOU done Alex TALK TO ME TALK TO ME"- it all ran together in his mind, in one ear and out the other.

Finally, he looked up at his family, his expression unchanged. "I didn't invite them," he finally said. "They just showed up. I wasn't here when they got here."

"But- you're drinking!"

"This isn't my glass."

"I won't stand for this! Tell them to leave!"

"They're not my responsibility."

* * *

Holy crap, I actually finished again! I'm sorry about the length, I promise later eps won't be this long!

-Carth


End file.
